Tetzaveh: Meeting Place

Moshe (“Moses” in English) spends his first 40-day stint on top of Mount Sinai listening to God’s instructions for reforming the Israelite system of worship by means of a portable sanctuary and priests only from the tribe of Levi. In last week’s Torah portion, Terumah, God says:

“Then let them make for me a mikdash, and I will dwell among them. Like all that I myself show you, the pattern of the mishkan and the pattern of all its furnishings, thus you should make it.” (Exodus 25:8-9)

mikdash (מִקְדָּשׁ) = holy place, sanctuary. (From the same root as kadosh, קָדוֹשׁ = holy.)

mishkan (מִשְׁכָּן) = dwelling place, home. (From the root verb shakhan, שָׁכַן = dwell, settle, stay, inhabit. The mishkan of God is often called a “tabernacle” in English.)

The Tabernacle in the Camp, Collectie Nederland

Then God describes the mishkan and most of the holy items associated with it.1 In this week’s Torah portion, Tetzaveh (Exodus/Shemot 27:20-30:10), God describes the vestments for the new priests and the ritual for ordaining them.2

This Torah portion also contains the first reference to the ohel mo-eid, the “Tent of Meeting” or “Tent of Appointment”:

“And you shall command the Israelites, and they will fetch you clear, beaten olive oil for the illumination, to bring up the lamp regularly in the ohel mo-eid, outside the dividing curtain that is in front of the testimony; Aharon and his sons shall arrange it from evening until morning in front of God …” (Exodus 27:20-21)

ohel (אֹהֶל) = tent, home that nomads can dismantle and reconstruct.

mo-eid (מוֹעֵד) = meeting, meeting place, appointed time, appointment. (From the root verb ya-ad, יָעַד = appointed, designated, met by appointment.)

This lamp is the seven-branched menorah (lampstand) in the front chamber of the mishkan.3 Moshe’s brother Aharon (“Aaron” in English) and Aharon’s four sons will be ordained as the revised religion’s first priests. Before this week’s portion, Tetzaveh, the word mo-eid is used only for appointment times, not places.4 But the ohel mo-eid is a place, a structure with a tent roof; a place which God appoints for some of the daily duties of the priests, and a place for God’s own “meeting” with the whole congregation.

An appointed place

After the brief reference to olive oil for the menorah, God describes the new priests’ vestments, from turbans to underpants.

“And you will make for them linen underpants to cover naked flesh; they will be from the hips to the thighs. And they must be upon Aharon and upon his sons whenever they come into the ohel mo-eid, or whenever they approach the altar to minister to the holy; then they will not bear iniquity and die …” (Exodus 28:43)

The ohel mo-eid is the mishkan, and the altar will stand in the courtyard in front of the mishkan. It is not clear whether the priests must wear all their vestments in these two holy spaces, or if they must merely wear their linen underpants under whatever robes or tunics they choose.

One of the first laws that God gave Moshe after the Ten Commandments was:

“And you must not climb up to my altar by ascending stairs, so that your nakedness will not be revealed upon it.” (Exodus 20:23)

Avoiding an altar with stairs is one way to avoid exposing one’s genitals when engaged in an act of worship. Wearing a long robe is not sufficient, since even if the people below cannot see a man’s private parts, it is forbidden to expose that part of their anatomy to even the floor or stairs of a holy place. The portion Terumah provides another way to avoid exposure: underpants.

On the other hand, the majority opinion in the Talmud is that a priest must be wearing all of his vestments, not the just underpants, when he is in the ohel mo-eid or its front courtyard. The reason, according to the Talmud, is that a man only counts as a priest when he is wearing the sacred vestments, and any non-priest officiating at the temple must be executed.5

Next God tells Moshe the ritual for ordaining the priests. First Moshe must bring a bull and two rams, three kinds of bread, and the new vestments to the altar.

“Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the ohel mo-eid and you shall wash them in water.” (Exodus 29:4)

Both the basin for the priests’ ritual washing and the altar for burnt offerings are located outside the Tent of Meeting, in front of its entrance.

Then Moshe will dress Aharon in all his vestments, including the additional sacred items of the high priest: a long blue robe with bells around the hem, a tabard with a breast-piece containing twelve gems for the twelve tribes and a pocket containing two divining devices, and a medallion to wear on his forehead over his turban.6 After that Moshe will dress Aharon’s four sons in the vestments that all priests wear: turbans, long tunics, and sashes. (The Torah does not say whether they put on their own underpants.)

“Then you shall bring the bull to the front of the ohel mo-eid, and Aharon and his sons shall lean their hands on the head of the bull.  And you shall slaughter the bull in front of God, at the entrance of the ohel mo-eid.”  (Exodus 29:10-11)

After calling for the ritual slaughtering of the bull and anointing of the altar and the new priests with its blood, God utters an aside about the high priest’s vestments.

And the holy garments that are Aharon’s will become his sons’ after him … For seven days the priest replacing him among his sons will wear them—the one who comes into the ohel mo-eid to minister at the holy place. (Exodus 29:30)

Now the high priest is defined not only by his special vestments, but also as the one who serves inside the ohel mo-eid. (Although other priests are allowed inside the front room of the ohel mo-eid, only the high priest may light the lamps and the incense altar there.)

Returning to the ordination ceremony, God says that Aharon and his sons must spend seven days eating bread and the meat of the ordination ram—

“—at the entrance of the ohel mo-eid.” (Exodus 29:32) They will not be allowed inside until the eighth day, after they have spent seven days at the threshold.

A meeting place

Then God tells Moshe what offerings should be made on the new altar on ordinary days (not on Shabbat or other holy days, which require more slaughtered animals). On ordinary days, God wants one yearling lamb every morning and one every evening, each lamb accompanied by flour with oil stirred into it, and a libation of wine. This will be:

“… a perpetual completely-burned offering throughout your generations, at the entrance of the ohel mo-eid in front of God. There iva-eid with you [plural], to speak to you [singular] there.” (Exodus 29:42)

iva-eid (אִוָּעֵד) = I will meet by appointment, I meet by appointment. (An imperfect form of the verb ya-ad, which is also the root of mo-eid.)

The Hebrew Bible sometimes switches randomly between the second-person singular and the second-person plural. But the next verse confirms that God will meet more than one person in front of the ohel mo-eid.

“Veno-adeti there with the Israelites, and it will be made holy by my glory. And I will make holy the ohel mo-eid and the altar; and Aharon and his sons I will make holy, to be my priests.” (Exodus 29:43-44)

veno-adeti (וְנֺעַדְתִּי) = and I will meet by appointment. (A vav consecutive perfect form of the verb ya-ad.)

In other words, God will “meet” the Israelites at designated times in the courtyard in front of the ohel mo-eid—the Tent of Meeting or Tent of Appointment. The Israelites will bring offerings, the priests will place them on the altar fire, and God will be there to appreciate them. Additionally, God will continue to speak to Moshe in front of that tent, among other places.

The altar is made holy by God’s glory (kavod, כָּבוֹד) only once, when the ritual prescribed in the Exodus portion Terumah is performed in the Leviticus portion Shemini. In Leviticus 9:23-24, God sends fire out from inside the mishkan to land on the new altar and finish consecrating it.

The rest of the time God’s glory is either located inside the mishkan, or appears as a cloud or fire—the same one that is shrouding Moshe at the top of Mount Sinai.7 In the future God’s glory, manifest as a cloud by day and fire by night, will hang above the mishkan or ohel mo-eid when the Israelites are camped, and lead the way to the next campsite when they are on the road.8

The expression ohel mo-eid appears 137 times in the books of Exodus through Deuteronomy, and usually—but not always—refers to God’s mishkan. The next Torah portion in Exodus, Ki Tisa, includes a strange passage in which there is an ohel mo-eid before anyone has started to build the mishkan—and Moshe, at least, meets God there.

Of course, the Tent of Meeting in the book of Exodus is a good precursor for the temple in Jerusalem; anyone reading or hearing Exodus during temple times would probably feel reassured that God had requested a similar place of worship long ago.

Although some people, in the Hebrew Bible and today, encounter manifestations of God at odd moments in random places, meeting God is more likely in a place of worship. I have found that coming to a synagogue and singing prayers with other Jews makes it more likely that I will feel the touch of holiness—that I will come closer to meeting God.

  1. See my posts Terumah: Contributing, Terumah: Wood Inside, Terumah: Tree of Light, Terumah: Under Cover, Terumah: Bread of Faces, Terumah: Heavy Metals, and Terumah: Cherubs Are Not for Valentine’s Day.
  2. See my posts Tetzaveh: Clothed in Three Reminders and a Warning, Tetzaveh: Flower on the Forehead, and Tetzaveh: The Clothes Make the Man.
  3. For more on the menorah, see my post Terumah: Tree of Light.
  4. Genesis 1:14, 17:21, 18:14, 21:2; and Exodus 9:5, 13:10, and 23:15.
  5. Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin 83b.
  6. See my post Tetzaveh: Clothed in Three Reminders and a Warning.
  7. Exodus 24:15-18.
  8. Exodus 40:34-38.

Terumah: Contributing

Before giving Moshe (“Moses” in English) the first pair of stone tablets at the summit of Mount Sinai, God gives him instructions for founding a new religion, featuring priests and a portable tent-sanctuary. The instructions begin with this week’s Torah portion, Terumah (Exodus/Shemot 25:1-2:19), which opens:

And God spoke to Moshe, saying: “Speak to the Israelites, and they must take for me a terumah; from every man whose heart urges him on, you will take my terumah.” (Exodus 25:1-2)

terumah (תְּרוּמָה) = voluntary contribution lifted up and offered to God. (From the root verb rum, רוּם = to be high, to be exalted.)

In other words, God is inviting people to make gifts because they want to. A list of materials to contribute follows, but no contributions are mandated. Furthermore, according to Chayim ibn Attar: “… a person should not make a contribution until he was in the proper frame of mind. … The Torah also may wish to teach that the term ‘my gift,’ cannot be used except when the donor has donated it willingly, generously, with all his heart.”1

Proposed gifts

wool dyed scarlet with tolaat shani
wool dyed blue with techeilet

All the materials that God requests (or proposes) will be used to fashion a portable sanctuary and its implements, and to make vestments for the priests of the new religion. Gold, silver, and four kinds of yarn (blue, red-violet, and scarlet wool, and bleached linen) are needed for both the sanctuary and the vestments. Acacia wood is needed for the framework of the sanctuary and its courtyard, and for the walls of the sanctuary (which will be covered with fabric inside and out). Goat’s hair yarn and two kinds of leather are needed for the three roof coverings to be draped over a wood framework. Copper (or brass or bronze) is needed for the altar and the wash-basin outside the sanctuary, and for clasps and sockets in the areas that do not require silver. Precious stones will be sewn onto the high priest’s vestments, incense spices are needed for one of the high priest’s duties, and olive oil is needed for inaugurating priests.

Why do the Israelites have all these materials? Harold Kushner pointed out: “The gold, silver, and jewels that the Israelites would give were taken from the Egyptians when they left Egypt. They were not to be used for personal benefit but for something holy and transcendant.”2

The Israelites also “borrowed” clothing from their Egyptian neighbors, which might have contained the woolen yarn colored with expensive dyes, and the linen threads. The Israelite women already had copper mirrors, and presumably copper pans, spices, and olive oil that they packed them for the journey.

Yet no matter where the materials came from, they are all made from things that God (as the creator of nature) originally provided. Considering this, many Israelites might feel moved to give something back to God. And the act of giving is in itself beneficial. Jonathan Sacks wrote: “To be in a situation where you can only receive, not give, is to lack human dignity.”3

A small space

After listing the materials to be donated, God tells Moshe:

“Then let them make me a holy-place, and veshakhanti among them. Like all that I myself show you, the pattern of the mishkan and the pattern of all its furnishings, thus you should make it.” (Exodus 25:8-9)

veshakhanti (וְשָׁכַנְתִּי) = and I will dwell, and I will settle. (From the verb shakhan, שָׁכַן = dwell, settle, stay, inhabit.)

The Tabernacle in the Camp, Collectie Nederland

mishkan (מִשְׁכָּן) = dwelling place, home. (From the root verb shakhan. Out of 137 occurrences of the word mishkan in the Hebrew Bible, only 12 refer to human rather than divine dwelling places.4 The mishkan of God is often called a “tabernacle” in English.)

If they build it, God will come. But how could God live in a structure that will be, according to God’s subsequent instructions, only 10 x 20 cubits (about 15 x 30 feet or 4½ x 9 meters)?

Many classic commentators pointed out that God is too vast to fit inside. They cited biblical passages such as: “Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You” (I Kings 8:27); “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” (Jeremiah 23:24); and “The heavens are My throne, and the earth is My footstool” (Isaiah 66:1).

In the 14th century Bachya ben Asher explained that only God’s kavod (כָּבוֹד = glory, magnificence, impressiveness) would dwell inside the mishkan. God’s kavod previously appeared as a pillar of cloud and fire, then as the cloud and fire on Mount Sinai. Now it would manifest above the ark in the back chamber of the sanctuary, called the Holy of Holies.

Other commentators have noted that God says: “make me a holy-place, and I will dwell among them”—not “inside it”.

For example, in the 19th century Malbim wrote: “He commanded that each individual should build him a sanctuary in the recesses of his heart, that he should prepare himself to be a dwelling place for the Lord … as well as an altar on which to offer up every portion of his soul to the Lord …”5

This has become a popular interpretation in modern times. But it begs the question of why God asks the Israelites to build a structure made out of wood, metal, fabric, and leather.

Insecurity

When God dictated a long list of laws to Moshe right after the revelation to all the Israelites at Mount Sinai, one of the first things God said was:

An altar of earth you may make for me, and you should slaughter upon it your complete-burned offerings and your wholeness offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you and I will bless you. (Exodus 20:21)

Since God is everywhere, and can come to people anywhere, why do the Israelites now need to build an elaborate temporary structure for God to dwell in?

One proposed reason why God calls for a mishkan is that it will help to convince the Israelites that God is with them. Just before Moshe comes back down the mountain with the instructions for making the mishkan, the Israelites in the camp are ordering Aharon (“Aaron” in English) to make them “a god that will go before us” (Exodus 32:1). As I wrote in my post Beha-alotkha & Ki Tisa: Calf Replacement, once the people believe they will never see Moshe again, they cannot bear to go on without at least an idol. So Aharon makes the golden calf.

Does God know ahead of time that the Israelites will want a concrete symbol of the divine? Or, as much classic commentary claims, are the passages in the book of Exodus out of order regarding the timing of events? Either way, the people are insecure, prone to feeling abandoned, and God orders the building of the mishkan.

Cassuto wrote: “… the children of Israel, after they had been privileged to witness the Revelation of God on Mount Sinai, were about to journey from there and thus draw away from the site of the theophany. … it seemed to them as though the link had been broken, unless there were in their midst a tangible symbol of God’s presence among them.”6

We learn in the book of Numbers that when the Israelites do finally march north from Mount Sinai, God’s manifestation as cloud by day and fire by night returns to guide them and signal when they should break camp.7 But the people do not know ahead of time that this will happen. And they need something concrete to reassure them right away.

Making something

Commentators through the centuries have proposed additional reasons why God wants the Israelites to build a mishkan. One of my favorites appears in Bamidbar Rabbah:

“You find that all the days that they were engaged in the labor of the Tabernacle, they were not complaining. When they completed the labor of the Tabernacle, the Holy One blessed be He was shouting: Woe, let them not return to complaining like they used to complain.”8

Personally, I find that there is nothing like doing creative, self-directed work to take my mind off my worries. And the Israelites get something close to that.

In the Torah portion Ki Tisa, before God gives Moshe the first pair of stone tablets, God appoints a master craftsman and his assistant (Betzaleil and Ohaliav) from among the Israelites, and hints that other skilled people will work under their supervision.9 When Moshe passes on God’s instructions to the people in the portion Vayakheil, he says outright:

And everyone wise of mind among you should come and make everything that God has commanded. (Exodus 35:10)

Then both men and women donate materials, and both men and women use their skills to make the pieces of the mishkan and the priests’ vestments. And during that whole year, nobody rebels, grumbles, or complains.

Changing

Could the experience of working together to create all these things for God permanently change the Israelites’ attitude? Jonathan Sacks thought so when he wrote: “The Tabernacle did not last forever, but the lesson it taught did. It is not what God does for us that transforms us, but what we do for God. … It is what we do, not what is done to us, that makes us free. That is a lesson as true today as it was then.”10

Sacks explained: “When a central power—even when this is God Himself—does everything on behalf of the people, they remain in a state of arrested development. They complain instead of acting. They give way easily to despair. When the leader, in this case Moses, is missing, they do foolish things, none more so than making a Golden Calf. There is only one solution: to make the people co-architects of their own destiny, to get them to build something together, to shape them into a team and show them that they are not helpless, that they are responsible and capable of collaborative action.”11

Yet making the mishkan and the priests’ vestments does not lead to a permanent change in the Israelites’ self-confidence or attitude toward God. Perhaps the problem is that they do all the craftsmanship in their camp at the foot of Mount Sinai, where they have water, daily manna, grazing for their livestock, and no enemies. Once the Israelites leave Mount Sinai, the complaints and rebellions start up again—mostly because the men (former slaves who have fought in only one clash)12 have no confidence in their ability to conquer Canaan by force of arms. Nobody is training them for war, and they cannot believe that God will provide enough magical help to make them win. Only after the Israelites have spent 40 years in the wilderness does the next generation march in and begin the conquest.

What if you had never had a chance to take initiative, to make decisions about your life, or to use your own talents—and then suddenly, like the Israelites, you were invited to contribute to a major creative project?

I lived under my mother’s thumb until I was 17 and I escaped to college. Like the Israelites eating manna and camping below Mount Sinai, I was not completely independent; my parents still paid for my expenses. But I lived in a dorm, I chose my own friends and my own classes, I did my own work, and I earned appreciation and respect. When my mother tried to take over my life again, I rebelled. I made mistakes, but I managed to become an adult.

The Israelites in the book of Exodus have one glorious year as volunteers making the mishkan. But once they finish, they have to go back to being dependent and following orders. No more contributions of their own are accepted. And they do not view God or Moshe as benign parents in the book of Numbers, because they are marching toward what they assume is pointless death at the hands of the Canaanites. Naturally they lapse back into complaining. Yet somehow, they raise their own children to be more confident in God and more confident in themselves. That is the way they achieve a permanent change.

  1. Rabbi Chayim ibn Attar, Or HaChayim, 18th century, translated in www.sefaria.org.
  2. Rabbi Harold Kushner, editor of d’rash commentary, Etz Hayim, The Rabbinical Assembly of The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, 2001, p. 486. See Exodus 3:21-22, 11:2-3, and 12:35-36.
  3. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Essays on Ethics, A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible: “The Labor of Gratitude: Terumah”, reprinted in www.sefaria.org.
  4. Numbers 24:5; Isaiah 22:16, 54:2; Jeremiah 19:18; Ezekiel 25:4; Habakuk 1:6;  Psalms 49:12, 87:2; Job 18:21, 21:28, and 39:6; and Songs 1:8.
  5. Malbim (acronym of 19th-century rabbi Meir Leibush Weisser), quoted by Nehama Leibowitz, Studies in Shemot, translated by Aryeh Newman, The Joint Authority for Jewish and Zionist Education, Jerusalem, 1996, p. 483.
  6. 20th century rabbi Umberto Cassuto (a.k.a. Moshe David Cassuto) quoted by Leibowitz, ibid., p. 484.
  7. Numbers 9:15-23.
  8. Bamidbar Rabbah, 11th or 12th century, translation in Rabbi Chayim ibn Attar, Or HaChayim, 18th century, translation in www.sefaria.org.
  9. Exodus 31:1-13.
  10. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, 21st century, Covenant & Conversation, “Building Builders: Terumah”.
  11. Sacks, Covenant & Conversation, “The Home We Build Together: Terumah 5781” (2021).
  12. With the men of Amaleik in Exodus 17:8-13.

Mishpatim: Choreography and Responsibility

After all the Israelites experience the revelation at Mount Sinai,1 God dictates about 50 specific laws to Moshe (“Moses” in English) in this week’s Torah portion, Mishpatim (Exodus/Shemot 21:1-24:18).

Then [God] said to Moshe: “Go up to God, you and Aharon, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and bow down from afar. Then Moshe alone will draw near to God. But they must not draw near. And the people must not go up with him.” (Exodus 24:1-2)

Before Moshe carries out this instruction, he shares all the laws from God with the Israelites.

Then Moshe came and recounted to the people all of the words of God and all the laws. And all the people answered with one voice, and they said: “All the words that God has spoken, we will do.” (Exodus 24:3)

Next Moshe writes it all down. In the morning he leads an elaborate covenantal ceremony (without being told to), He builds an altar, sets up twelve standing stones, and orders young men to sacrifice bulls to God. Moshe splashes half of the bulls’ blood on the altar, then reads God’s laws out loud. This time the Israelites shout:

“All that God has spoken, we will do and we will heed!” And Moshe took the blood and splashed it on the people. And he said: “Here is the blood of the covenant that God has cut with you by means of all these words!” (Exodus 24:7-8)

Only after he has done all he can to secure the commitment of the Israelite people does Moshe lead the elders partway up the mountain.

And they went up, Moshe and Aharon, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel, and under [God’s] feet something like a brick pavement of sapphire, and like the substance of the heavens for purity. And God did not send out [God’s] hand against the eminent Israelites. And they beheld God, and they ate and they drank. (Exodus 24:9-11)

Where does Moshe go next?

Then God said to Moshe: “Come up to me on the mountain. And you will be there, and I will give you the stone tablets, and the teaching, and the commands that I have inscribed to teach them.” And Moshe and his attendant, Yehoshua, stood up, and Moshe went up the mountain of God. (Exodus 24:12-13)

If the party of 74 men is still sitting partway up Mount Sinai when God speaks to Moshe again, where did Yehoshua (“Joshua” in English) come from?

Bachya ben Asher wrote: “Joshua was one of the seventy elders mentioned previously as having had a vision of God. In fact, Joshua was the most senior of these seventy elders.”2

From the book of Judges on, elders are older men who sit in the gate of their town or village and judge disputes and legal issues the residents bring to them. In the previous Torah portion in Exodus, Moshe appointed elders as lower court judges who would refer the difficult cases to him.3

Yehoshua (Joshua) is a young man (see Exodus 33:11 below), and he has a different role. He waits on Moshe, and he also served as the commander when the Israelite men fought off the Amalekites on the way to Mount Sinai.4 So although Yehoshua has as much status as an elder, I do not believe he is one.

The next verse implies that not even the elders are still partway up the mountain when God speaks to Moshe again.

And [Moshe] said to the elders: “Wait bazeh for us until we return to you! And hey, Aharon and Chur are with you. Whoever has a lawsuit can approach them.” (Exodus 24:14)

bazeh (בָּזֶה) = here, at this place.

Moshe tells the elders to “wait here” until he and Yehoshua (Joshua) return. Where is “here”?

The rest of the Israelites, including any plaintiffs or witnesses, are forbidden to go even halfway up the mountain. So the elders cannot judge their cases from that spot. Moshe must be instructing them, along with Aharon and Chur, to wait at the foot of the mountain. (It is reasonable to assume that Chur is one of the 70 elders, since he and Aharon supported Moshe’s staff during the battle with the Amalekites.)

Therefore bazeh, “at this place”, means the camp at the foot of Mount Sinai. Moshe must have led everyone back down to camp before he gave the elders their orders.

Moshe’s instructions also reveal that he expects to be at the top of the mountain for some time. If he thought that receiving “the stone tablets, and the teaching” from God would take only a day or two, he would probably say that anyone with a dispute too difficult for the seventy elders could postpone the case until he gets back. Instead, he appoints Aharon and Chur as a high court while he is gone.

Where does Yehoshua go?

Moshe and Yehoshua (Joshua) stand up. Moshe tells the elders to wait “for us until we return to you”.

Then Moses went up the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. (Exodus 24:15)

If Moshe goes up the mountain alone, where does Yehoshua go?

In the 11th century C.E., Rashi wrote: “As a disciple he was accompanying the teacher as far as the place where the bounds of the mountain were marked out, whence onward he was not permitted to proceed. … Joshua pitched his tent there and stayed there during the whole forty days which Moses spent on the mountain. For thus we find that when Moses came down from the mountain it states, ‘and Joshua heard the voice of the people that they shouted’— from which we may infer that he was not with them in the camp.”5

View at the top

The text says that Moshe went into the cloud (he-anan, הֶעָנָן),not a cloud (which would be just anan). So this must be the manifestation of God that led the Israelites from Egypt to Mount Sinai in the shape of a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. In the next verse, the cloud is explicitly identified with God.

And the kavod of God settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. And [God] called to Moses on the seventh day from the midst of the cloud. (Exodus 24:16)

kavod (כָּבוֹד) = impressive appearance, glory, splendor, weight.

Apparently Moshe climbs up as far as God’s cloud of glory, then waits in front of the blank white fog until God calls him inside.

According to Sefer Olam Rabbah, “This was in order for Moses to purify himself.”6

According to Avot de Rabbi Natan, the six-day wait was “So that he could be emptied of all the food and drink that was in his stomach, so that when he was sanctified, he would be like the angels who serve God.”7

Bachya ben Asher wrote that during those six days, “Moses prepared himself mentally for meeting Hashem [God] …”8

View from the bottom

While Moshe is staring at the divine cloud, the Israelites below are seeing something different.

But the appearance of the kavod of God was like a consuming fire at the top of the mountain in the eyes of the Israelites. (Exodus 24:17)

Moses sees God’s kavod as a cloud, or a wall of fog; it obscures his vision but is not deadly. The Israelites below see God’s kavod as a “consuming” fire.

When I taught a class on this part of the Torah portion in 2024, my adult students came up with a good metaphorical explanation: The first time Moshe climbs Mount Sinai, he sees God as fire in the bush that burned but was not consumed. By the time he returns to Mount Sinai, he has developed a relationship with God, so God appears to him as mysterious, like a cloud, but not threatening. The Israelites below, however, have not been conversing with God, so God appears as a dangerous consuming fire to them.

They see their leader, Moshe, walk into the fire, and they doubt that he will ever come back. (See my post Mishpatim: Seeing the Cloud.) It amazes me that nevertheless the Israelites wait for forty days before going to Aharon and demanding an idol to lead them the rest of the way to Canaan.

Into the cloud

Then Moses entered the midst of the cloud, and he went up the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. (Exodus 24:18)

Jewish midrash noted that later in Exodus, Moses is unable to enter the newly-constructed Tent of Meeting “because the cloud had settled on it and the kavod of God filled the dwelling-place” (Exodus 40:35). So how does Moses manage to get into the cloud of God’s kavod on Mount Sinai?

According to the Talmud, “This teaches that the Holy One, Blessed be He, grabbed Moses and brought him into the cloud, since he could not enter on his own.”9

Asher Tzvi of Ostrow wrote: “When Moses ascended on high, a cloud came up against him, and Moses our teacher did not know if one rides it or holds it. Immediately, the cloud opened its mouth and Moses entered it, and he walked into the firmament like a man walking on land.”10 This midrash continues with Moshe encountering angels in the heavens before he finally reaches God.

When I researched this blog post, I wondered if the apparent inconsistencies in the locations of Moshe (Moses), Yehoshua (Joshua), Aharon (Aaron), and the elders were due to a redactor patching together several traditional stories about the same event. But I have not found any support for this hypothesis in modern source scholarship. Friedman views the story as coming from a single source from Exodus 24:1 through “And Moses went up the mountain” (Exodus 24:15); the author does not change until the second half of Exodus 24:15, “and the cloud covered the mountain”.11

When I did a close reading of the text, I discovered that the choreography actually does work if Moshe leads Aharon and the elders back down to the Israelite camp after their vision of God’s feet, and that is where God speaks to Moshe again, and Yehoshua (Joshua) jumps up and accompanies him as far as the foot of the route back up Mount Sinai.

The story would be tidier if after Moshe’s party beheld God’s feet and ate and drank, Moshe continued up the mountainside alone. I can imagine Aharon leading his sons and the seventy elders back down to the Israelite camp, while Yehoshua waits there for forty days.

But I think that Moshe does not want to leave a large group of dazed and excited men, who have been drinking as well as eating, alone on the mountainside. What if they doze off and wake up disoriented? What if they cannot find their way down? What if it gets dark and they stumble?

After God tells Moshe: “Go up to God, you and Aharon, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and bow down from afar” (Exodus 24:1), Moshe postpones leaving until he has conducted an impressive covenant ceremony with all the Israelites. As their leader, he is responsible for them, and he decides that he should secure the loyalty of all of the people before doing any special ritual with the elders.

When the ritual with the elders is complete,12 Moshe once again puts his responsibility as a leader first. He makes sure everyone gets home safely before he climbs Mount Sinai again, even though retracing his steps means a lot more physical labor.

Some prophets might be tempted to rush toward God, eager for a personal revelation. But Moshe takes care of his people first.

If only all our leaders were as responsible as Moshe, our lives would be blessed.

  1. “The revelation at Mount Sinai” commonly refers to Exodus 19:13-20:17 in the Torah portion Yitro, which includes spectacular volcanic effects including synesthesia (see my post Yitro & Bereishit: Don’t Even Touch It) and the pronouncement of the “Ten Commandments”.
  2. 14th-century Rabbi Bachya ben Asher, translation in www.sefaria.org.
  3. Exodus 18:24-25.
  4. Exodus 17:8-13.
  5. Rashi, acronym of 11th-century Rabbi Shlomon Yitzchaki, translation in www.sefaria.org.
  6. Sefer Olam Rabbah, 2nd century C.E., translation in www.sefaria.org.
  7. Avot de Rabbi Natan, 650-950 C.E., translation in www.sefaria.org.
  8. Bachya ben Asher, ibid.
  9. Talmud Bavli, Yoma 4b, translation by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, William Davidson Talmud in www.sefaria.org.
  10. Rabbi Asher Tzvi of Ostrow, Ma’ayan HaChochmah, 1816.
  11. Richard Elliott Friedman, The Bible with Sources Revealed, HarperSanFrancisco, 2003, pp. 160-161.
  12. See my post Yitro & Mishpatim: Four Attempts at a Lasting Covenant.

Haftarat Yitro—Isaiah: The Volunteer

Every week of the year has its own Torah portion, a reading from the first five books of the Bible, and its own haftarah, an accompanying reading from the books of the prophets. This week the Torah portion is Yitro (Exodus 18:1-20:23) and the haftarah is Isaiah 6:1-13 in the Sefardic tradition (Isaiah 6:1-7:6 plus 9:5-6 in the Ashkenazic tradition).

I have met a few mystics who savor every numinous experience, and spend their lives trying to get more of them. I have not met any prophets, as far as I know. But since I am a Jew who loves research and analysis, I study the Hebrew Bible, including its many stories of prophets who see visions, hear God, and spend their lives passing on God’s words.

The biblical individual who is most reluctant about becoming a prophet is Moshe (“Moses”), who argues with God at the burning bush before finally succumbing and accepting his vocation.1 In this week’s Torah portion, Yitro, Moshe has returned to Mount Sinai as the leader of a horde of Israelites from Egypt, and God gives them all a frightening experience of the transcendent. (See my post Yitro & Bereishit: Don’t Even Touch It.) It does not turn anyone else into a prophet.

Most of the biblical prophets after Moses simply hear from God and do what they are told;2 we never find out how their vocation began. The exceptions are Shmuel (“Samuel”), who hears a voice as a boy when he is sleeping near the sanctuary;3 Elisha, who is chosen by another prophet, and runs after him;4 Yermiyahu (“Jeremiah”), who hears God tell him that he was born to be a prophet;5 and Yeshayahu (“Isaiah” in English) in this week’s haftarah.

Starting with a vision

The first 39 chapters of the book of Isaiah, commonly called “First Isaiah”, record the prophecies of an 8th-century citizen of the kingdom of Judah, possibly a priest, named Yeshayahu son of Amotz. (The remaining 27 chapters in the book, commonly called “Second Isaiah”, were added two or three centuries later and feature an unnamed prophet.)

In the sixth chapter of the book of Isaiah, and Yeshayahu (Isaiah) tells the story of his call to prophecy.

In the year of the death of the king Uziayahu, 6 I saw my Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne. And the skirts of [God’s] robe filled the heykhal. (Isaiah 6:1)

heykhal (הֵיכָל) = temple, palace.

What is the setting for this vision? The commentary is divided on whether Yeshayahu (Isaiah) is standing inside the temple in Jerusalem, or seeing a divine palace in the heavens.

Alter wrote: “Since it was believed that there was a correspondence between the Temple in Jerusalem and God’s celestial palace, it is understandable that Isaiah should have a vision of God enthroned in the Temple. God apparently is imagined as having gigantic proportions …”7

If Yeshayahu (Isaiah) were indeed a priest standing in the main room of the temple, he would see real clouds of incense filling the hall before he beholds God seated on a throne.

On the other hand, Canaanite religions told of various gods coming to a supreme god’s palace in the sky to decide the fate of human beings. The Israelite religion evolved to reject other gods, but the idea of a palace in the sky persisted.8

Or the vision might combine both settings. Rashi wrote: “I saw Him sitting on His throne in heaven with His feet in the Temple, His footstool in the Sanctuary …”9

Seraf, mosaic in Haggia Sophia, Istanbul

Yeshayahu (Isaiah) sees not only the figure of a seated man wearing a robe that overflows to fill the room, but also supernatural attendants serving him.

Serafim were standing above, each with six wings; with one pair he covered his face, and with a pair he covered his feet, and with a pair he was flying. And this one called to that one, and said: “Holy! Holy! Holy! The glory of the God of tzevaot fills the earth!” (Isaiah 6:2-3)

serafim (שְׂרָפִים) = burning creatures—either poisonous snakes or fiery angelic beings. (From the root verb saraf, שָׂרַף = burn.)

tzevaot (צְבָאוֹת) = armies. (Singular: tzeva, צְבָא. See my post Haftarat Bo—Jeremiah: The Ruler of All Armies.)

The term “God of Armies” often refers to armies on earth, but in some contexts God is the master of metaphorical “armies” of stars—or perhaps serafim—in the sky. In the first book of Kings, a prophet named Mikhayahu son of Yimlah introduces a prophecy by announcing:

“Thus I heard the word of God: I saw God sitting on [God’s] throne, and all the tzeva of the heavens were standing above, to [God’s] right and to [God’s] left.” (1 Kings 22:19)

According to Kugel, the description of serafim in the book of Isaih affirms that the stars and planets are not other gods, but “actually seraphim, ‘burners,’ who lit up the sky but whose principal function was to praise God, calling out, ‘Holy, holy, holy’ to the Creator.”10

And the doorposts shook from the sound of the calling, and the house was filling with smoke. And I said: “Alas for me, because I am undone! For I am a man of impure lips, and I live among a people of impure lips. Yet my eyes have seen the King, the God of tzevaot!” (Isaiah 6:4-5)

Yesheyahu (Isaiah) believes he is unworthy of a vision of God. And he identifies his lips as the source of impurity.

Kugel pointed out that “there is no such concept as ‘impure lips’ in biblical law.”11 Ritual impurity comes from contact with corpses, genital discharges, and skin disease. Other commentators have noted that in the book of Exodus, Moshe objects to being a prophet on the grounds that he has uncircumcized lips.12 But Moshe means that he is a poor speaker, not that his lips are contaminated.

Apparently Yesheyahu (Isaiah) is thinking along the same lines as the prophet in the later book of Zephaniah, who connects purity of lips, i.e. language, with not lying or speaking deceitfully.13

At any rate, Yesheyahu’s focus on his lips indicates that he already believes, or hopes, that God wants him to be a prophet. How could he speak for God when he has “impure lips”, like all the other Israelites?

Then one of the serafim flew over to me, and in his hand was a live coal; with tongs he had taken it from on top of the altar. And he touched it to my lips, and said: “Behold, this touch on your lips removes your iniquity and atones for your guilt.” (Isaiah 6:6-7)

Volunteering

Then I heard the voice of my Lord saying: “Whom will I send? And who will go for us?” And I said: “Here I am. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)

This verse, like the one about the tzevaot of the heavens, echoes the vision that the prophet Mikhayahu describes to King Achav of Israel.

“And God asked: “Who will entice Achav, so he will go up, then fall at Ramot-Gilead?” And this one said thus, and that one said thus. Then a spirit went out and stood before God and said: “I will entice him.” (1 Kings 22:20-21)

This spirit plans to entice King Achav by putting lies into the mouths of all the human prophets, so that the king will march on Ramot-Gilead and be defeated.

In Yesheyahu’s (Isaiah’s) vision, God asks “Who will go for us?” without saying what the mission is. Yesheyahu, elated by his purification, enthusiastically volunteers.

A doomed job

Isaiah Accepts Mockery Because of His Faith, by Augustin Hirschvogel, 1549

And [God] said: “Go, and you must say to the people: Keep hearing, but you will not understand; and keep seeing, but you will not perceive!” (Isaiah 6:9)

This message seems designed to make people hate the messenger. Rashi explained that God is frustrated that the people of Judah are making no effort to understand what God wants from them.14 Plaut wrote: “The transgressors don’t want to be confronted with the truth, and when someone tries to tell it to them, they close their minds and become incapable of listening any further.”15

Then why does God want a prophet to speak at all? According to Steinsaltz, “… the people were warned so that they would recall the warning sometime later.”16

Next God informs Yeshayahu (Isaiah) that he must disguise the truth—the very behavior that made him believe his lips were impure.

“Make the mind of this people obtuse, and make its ears dull and its eyes blurred; lest it see with its eyes and hear with its ears and discern with its mind, and turn around [repent] and heal itself”. (Isaiah 6:10)

According to the Talmud, God is referring to the healing of forgiveness.17 And God does not want to forgive the people yet. Prophets in the Hebrew Bible (except for ecstatics; see my post Haftarat Ki Tissa: Ecstatic versus Rational Prophets) normally warn nations and kings about the bad things that will happen if they do not change their ways; the prophet and God hope that people will heed the warning and change. But in this case, God is determined to punish Judah, and does not want its population to repent and change too soon.

I wonder if Yeshayahu (Isaiah) would have volunteered so eagerly in his vision if he had known God’s plan.

On the other hand, Yeshayahu has already delivered prophecies for five chapters before he recounts what he saw and how he volunteered to be a prophet. Perhaps his failure to get anyone to change has made him conclude, bitterly, that God does not really want anyone to repent, so he tells the story of his vision accordingly.

Then I said: “How long, my Lord?” And [God] said: “Until towns are ruined and there are no inhabitants, and in houses there are no humans, and the ground is a ruined desolation. For God will send the humans far away, and [there will be] many forsaken places in the midst of the land.”  (Isaiah 6:11-12)

Will Yesheyahu’s (Isaiah’s) deceptive prophecies result in the desolation of Judah? Or must Yesheyahu keep uttering ineffective prophecies until Judah is ruined and empty?

The idea of being sent far away would occur naturally to Yesheyahu (Isaiah), since while he was uttering prophecies in the southern kingdom of Judah, the Assyrian Empire was conquering the northern kingdom of Israel and forcibly relocating tens of thousands of its citizens.18 

The vision closes with God saying:  

“But while a tenth part is still in it [Judah], then it will turn back [repent]. And it will be ravaged like the terebinth and the oak, of which stumps are left when [they are] felled. Its stump is a holy seed.” (Isaiah 6:13)

Steinsaltz explained: “The people who will ultimately survive will be holy. They will have endured everything that was necessary, and they will not fall into decline again.”19

The northern kingdom of Israel never regenerated after so many of its citizens were deported by Assyria. In the 6th century B.C.E., the southern kingdom of Judah suffered from similar deportations by the conquering Babylonians. Some of those Judahites did return later to rebuild Jerusalem. So either Yesheyahu’s (Isaiah’s) vision concludes with a long-term prediction, or a later scribe added the last verse to this story.

The prophetic careers of both Moshe (Moses) and Yesheyahu (Isaiah) begin with a numinous experience in which God speaks to them. Both men object that their lips are not suitable for a job as God’s agent—Moshe because he cannot speak well, Yesheyahu because he has been speaking deceptively.

Moshe continues to argue with God, finally saying “Send someone else!” before he gives up and obeys God’s order to go back to Egypt.20 Then he grows in the job, argues with God on behalf of the Israelites, and succeeds in bringing the next generation to Canaan before he dies.

Yesheyahu (Isaiah) embraces his calling as soon as his lips are purified. He spends 38 years conscientiously announcing prophecies, then dies after telling King Chizkiyahu (“Hezekiah” in English) that Babylon will seize his country, his children, and the treasures in his palace.21 Despite all his prophecies, Yesheyahu never sees the fall of Judah, nor the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

Yet once someone in the Hebrew Bible starts speaking for God, he or she is not allowed to quit.22

Today, individuals are called prophets if they have unusually keen spiritual and moral insight and a way with words, and use these abilities to publicly call for change in a society. I wonder what moves them to embark on this difficult path in life. Are they overwhelmed by a vision? Are they volunteers? Are they driven by a feeling that they have no other choice?

  1. See my posts Shemot: Empathy,Fear, & Humility, Shemot: Names and Miracles, Shemot: Not a Man of Words, and Shemot: Moses Gives Up.
  2. Except for Jonah, who runs away, then reluctantly does his job after being swallowed and vomited out by a big fish.
  3. 1 Samuel 3:1-10.
  4. 1 Kings 10:19-21.
  5. See my post Haftarat Shemot or Matot—Jeremiah: A Congenital Prophet.
  6. King Uziyahu of Judah died sometime between 742 and 734 B.C.E.. Modern scholars believe the prophecies in First Isaiah were recited orally, and not written down until at least a century later.
  7. Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, Volume 2: Prophets, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2019, p. 640.
  8. E.g. Micah 1:2-3.
  9. Rashi (acronym of 11th-century Rabbi Shlomoh Yitzchaki), translation in www.sefaria.org.
  10. James L. Kugel, How to Read the Bible, Free Press, New York, 2007, p. 541.
  11. Ibid.
  12. Exodus 6:12.
  13. Zephaniah 3:9, 3:13.
  14. Rashi, ibid.
  15. W. Gunther Plaut, The Haftarah Commentary, translated by Chaim Stern, UAHC Press, New York, 1996, p.170.
  16. Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, Introductions to Tanakh: Isaiah, in www.sefaria.org.
  17. Talmud Bavli, Megillah 17b.
  18. Yeshayahu’s prophecies began around 740 B.C.E., and were recorded around 640 B.C.E. The Assyrian deportations occurred in 734-732, 729-724, and 716-715 B.C.E.
  19. Steinsaltz, ibid.
  20. Exodus 4:13.
  21. Isaiah 39:5-7. This passage may also have been added by a later scribe.
  22. See the book of Jonah.

Beshallach & Judges: Stuck in the Mud

Hittite War Chariot Crushes Enemy, 13th century BCE bas-relief

Prosperous kingdoms in the Ancient Near East had horse-drawn war chariots; before the reign of King Shlomoh (“Solomon” in English) the Israelites had only foot soldiers.1

In each enemy war chariot stood a driver and one or two archers, all armed with swords in case of close combat. On an open plain, a battalion of chariots could slaughter a large regiment of foot soldiers—unless the foot soldiers have a secret weapon.

And the Israelites do, as in both this week’s Torah portion, Beshallach (Exodus/Shemot 13:17-17:16), and the accompanying haftarah reading, Judges 4:4-5:31: a God who controls the weather.

At the Sea of Reeds

And God caused the people to turn onto the road in the wilderness of the Sea of Reeds. And the people went up armed from the land of Egypt. (Exodus 13:18)

Although God had ordered the Israelites to “borrow” silver and gold objects from their desperate Egyptian neighbors before they left,2 God said nothing about weapons. The fact that the Israelites “borrowed” swords as well only shows that they were already afraid of being attacked, not that they knew how to use their weapons.3

A pillar of cloud by day and fire by night leads the Israelites to the shore of an inlet or brackish lake called the Sea of Reeds. Meanwhile, God tells Moses:

“I will strengthen the heart of Paroh [“Pharaoh”], and he will pursue them. Then I will be glorified through Paroh and through all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am God!” (Exodus 14:4)

On the theory that an act of God is an act of nature, it makes sense that after the pharaoh has made a habit of hardening his own heart after each plague God sent to Egypt, now his heart hardens naturally when he hears where the Israelites have gone.

And he harnessed his chariot, and he took his [fighting] people with him, and he took 600 choice chariots, and every [other] chariot in Egypt, every one with a team of three. (Exodus 14:6-7)

The pharaoh’s chariots catch up with the Israelites at the shore of the Sea of Reeds.

… and the Israelites raised their eyes, and hey! Egypt was setting out after them! And they were very afraid. And the Israelites cried out to God. (Exodus 14:10)

Many classic commentators questioned why the Israelites, with 600,000 men,4 would be afraid of an Egyptian force of 600 chariots.5 Even if every chariot held two archers and was pulled by two horses, how many men can 1200 archers and 1200 war horses strike down before they are overwhelmed by the remaining foot soldiers?

Chizkuni summarized the most common explanation: “Their fear was based on their slave mentality. Every slave is afraid of his master. These Israelites had not yet proven to themselves that they could fend for themselves.”6

After crying out to God, the people protest to Moshe (“Moses”in English), who tells them that God will fight the Egyptian chariot battalion, and they should all be quiet.

Then the messenger of God that was going in front of the machaneih of Israel pulled out and went around behind them; the pillar of cloud pulled out from in front of them and stood behind them. And it came between the machaneih of Egypt and the machaneih of Israel … (Exodus 14:19-20)  

machaneih (מַחֲנֵה) = camp (as a place with temporary structures for spending the night); camp (as a faction or party of people).

Here, nobody is camping for the night. The sun sets, and the pillar of cloud between the two camps turns into a pillar of fire.

And Moshe stretched out his hand over the sea, and God made the sea go back with a strong east wind all night, and made the sea [bed] dry land; for the waters split. And the Israelites came through the middle of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were a wall for them on their right and on their left. (Exodus 14:21-22)

While the Israelites and their livestock are walking in the dark ahead of the pillar of fire, the Egyptians see the pillar of fire receding down a stretch of dry land.

Then the Egyptians pursued and came after them: all of Paroh’s horses and his chariots and his horsemen, into the middle of the sea. (Exodus 14:23)

 The Israelites are climbing the bank of the far shore while the Egyptians are racing across the temporary road of dry land. Then, during the last watch of the night, God acts again.

And God looked down at the Egyptian camp from the pillar of fire and cloud, and yaham the Egyptian camp. (Exodus 14:24)

yaham (יָהָם) = he confused, confounded, panicked. (From the verb hamam, הָמַם = roused, brought into movement and confusion, caused pandemonium.)

And [God] loosened the wheels of his [the pharaoh’s] chariots and made them drive with heaviness. Then [the king of] Egypt said: “I must flee from the face of Israel, because God wages war for them against Egypt!” (Exodus 14: 25)

What is God doing to the Egyptian chariots?

Rashi suggested: “Through the power of the fire of the pillar of fire the wheels were burnt and the chariots were thus dragged along and those who were sitting in them were thrown about and their limbs were all put out of joint.”7

Escape Over the Red Sea, Golden Haggadah, ca. 1320, Spain

Others proposed that many of the panicked Egyptian chariot drivers tried to turn around, but then they crashed into the chariots behind them.8

But according to Robert Alter, “The simplest explanation is that as the water begins to seep back and before it becomes a flood that engulfs the Egyptians, it turns the dry ground into muck. The chariot wheels rapidly become stuck in the mud … and break off from the axles.”9

At sunrise, when all the Israelites are safe on the other side, God tells Moshe to turn around and stretch out his hand again. The water comes crashing back in.

And the waters returned, and they covered the chariots and the horsemen of all of Paroh’s army that was coming after them into the sea; not one of them remained. (Exodus 14:28)

Thanks to God, the entire enemy force is dead.

At the Wadi Kidron

When the haftarah reading in the book of Judges opens, the Israelites have been subjugated by a Canaanite king named Yavin, whose general is Sisera.

And the Israelites cried out to God, because he had 900 iron chariots, and he had been violently oppressing the Israelites for twenty years. (Judges 4:3)

But now the Israelites have a leader like Moses, who was both a prophet (spokesperson for God) and a judge (legal authority).

 And Devorah was a woman, a prophetess, a woman of torches. She was judging Israel at that time. (Judges 4:4)

Israelites from several northern tribes routinely come to consult Devorah at her home in Efrayim territory. Now she summons Barak, who presumably has some experience leading soldiers, from his home in Naftali territory.

And she said to him: “Has not God, the God of Israel, commanded you: ‘Go! And you must form a line on Mount Tabor, and take with you 10,000 men from the Naftalites and the Zevulunites. And I will form a line against you at the Wadi Kishon: Sisera, commander of Yavin’s army, and his procession. And I will give him into your hand!’” (Judges 4:6-7)

Mount Tabor was forested, providing the Israelites with both cover and a view of the upper Jezreel Valley, including the streambed of the Kishon River. Devorah communicates God’s promise to bring the enemy to the bottom of the mountain and give victory to the Israelites. But Barak is understandably nervous about the whole enterprise.

And Barak said to her: “If you go with me, I will go. But if you do not go with me, I will not go!” (Judges 4:8)

She agrees, and he rounds up 10,000 men. When General Sisera learns that 10,000 foot soldiers have gathered on Mount Tabor, he takes his 900 chariot crews, along with all his other fighters, to the Wadi Kishon.

The Defeat of Sisera, by Luca Girodano, 1692, detail

And Devorah said to Barak: “Arise, because this is the day that God is giving Sisera into your hand! Does not God go out before you?” And Barak came down from Mount Tabor, and 10,000 men were behind him. And God yaham Sisera and all the chariotry and all the camp toward the edge of the sword[s] in front of Barak. And Sisera got down from the chariot and fled on foot. And Barak was pursuing after the chariotry and after the machaneih … And the whole machaneih of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword. (Judges 4:13-16)

Only Sisera escapes, and he is then killed by a woman, Yael (“Jael” in English)—but that is a story for another post.

What does God do to the Canaanites and their chariots that causes panic and pandemonium? The story in the book of Judges holds no internal clues. But the poem following it does.

In both Exodus and Judges, the stories are followed by poems composed in a more ancient Hebrew than the rest of the Hebrew Bible. The poem that Devorah and Barak sing, known a the “Song of Devorah” (Judges 5:1-31), mentions more Israelite tribes, and describes Yael’s killing of Sisera differently. One line in the poem provides more information about the destruction of Sisera’s army:

The Wadi Kishon swept them away. (Judges 5:21) A wadi is a stream-bed that contains only a trickle during the dry season. A heavy rainstorm at the wadi’s source results in a rushing flood of water. Steinsaltz explained: “The Kishon Stream, which apparently overflowed its banks, swept them, some of the enemy soldiers, away. The ground turned muddy, making it impossible for the chariots to maneuver properly. Thus, the chariot riders became easy prey for the foot soldiers of Zebulun and Naphtali, who gained the advantage of speed.”10

In both the Torah portion and the haftarah, Israelites on foot face archers riding on chariots. And in both Exodus and Judges, God saves the Israelites by manipulating water so that the chariots will be stuck in the mud, and the enemy will die in the ensuing confusion and panic.

The Israelites are stuck in the role of victims until God strikes. In the portion Beshallach, they believe that they can never escape from the pharaoh.  In the haftarah from Judges, they believe they will always be under the thumb of the Canaanite king.

Their enemies feel free to throw their weight around, until the situation reverses and they are the ones who are stuck. The chariot wheels that gave them such mobility are jammed by mud, immovable. And the Israelites are freed.

The English idiom ‘stick-in-the-mud” means someone who resists change, who does not adapt to new circumstances. Although the Israelites in both stories are afraid of the enemy who has long oppressed them, when their prophet—Moshe or Devorah—tells them in the name of God to do something new, they bravely go ahead and do it. The ex-slaves from Egypt walk in the dark between two walls of water, trusting that the ground will stay firm under their feet until they reach the other side. The oppressed Israelites in northern Canaan hurry down toward the chariot riders poised to shoot them.

But their enemies are stick-in-the-mud types even before the real mud arrives. The pharaoh keeps breaking his promises to let the Israelites go, hardening his heart because he cannot bear to give up the status quo. General Sisera is so used to success that he orders his troops into a wadi without thinking about the weather. When the Egyptian pharaoh and the Canaanite general encounter some unexpected mud, they are confused; they do not know how to handle it.

The road to freedom is courage. The road to destruction is the inability to change.

  1. Kings 10:26.
  2. Exodus 12:35-36.
  3. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, The Hirsch Chumash: Sefer Shemos, translated by Daniel Haberman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, p. 228.
  4. Exodus 12:37. Numbers in the Hebrew Bible are chosen for emotional impact, and are not meant to be historically accurate.
  5. E.g. Ibn Ezra, Chizkuni, Bachya ben Asher.
  6. Chizkuni, 13th-century compilation of midrash by Rabbi Hezekiah ben Manoah, translation in www.sefaria.org.
  7. Rashi, acronym of 11th-century Rabbi Shlomoh Yitzchaki, translation in www.sefaria.org. 14th-century rabbis Jacob ben Asher (Tur HaArokh) and Bachya ben Asher also expressed this opinion.
  8. E.g. Ibn Ezra, Midrash Tanchuma, Chizkuni, Rashbam
  9. Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2004, p. 395. Also proposed by Rabbi Obadiah Sforno in the 16th century.
  10. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Introductions to Tanach: Judges, quoted on www.sefaria.org.

Bo: The First Passover

Plague of the death of the Firstborn, Spanish hagadah ca. 1490

The midnight death of the firstborn is the last of the ten plagues that God inflicts upon Egypt before the pharaoh lets the Israelites go in this week’s Torah portion, Bo (Exodus/Shemot 10:1-13:16). First Moshe (“Moses” in English) warns Paroh (“Pharaoh” in English) that all the firstborn sons1 in Egypt will die—

“— from the firstborn son of Paroh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave who is behind the millstones, and the firstborn of every beast. Then there will be a loud cry throughout all the land of Egypt, the like of which has never been, and never will be again. But against all the Israelites, not a dog will sharpen its tongue …” (Exodus 11:5-7)

In other words, all the firstborn sons of Egyptians and their livestock will die, but the firstborn sons of Israelites and their livestock will be unharmed; not even a dog will snarl at them.

In order to make the Israelites exempt from this final plague, God orders a ritual.

Marking with blood

First, God tells Moshe that every Israelite household must acquire a lamb or a goat kid, an unblemished male yearling, on the tenth day of “this month”— Aviv, the first month of spring.2 If a household has too few members to eat an entire lamb in one night, it should combine with another small household. The household must keep watch over the animal for four days, then slaughter it on the fourteenth day of the month.

The Signs on the Door, by James Tissot, ca. 1900

“Then they will take some of the blood and put it on the two door posts and on the lintel, on the houses where they will eat it.” (Exodus 12:7)

When Moshe passes on this instruction to the Israelite elders, he provides more details:

“Then you must take a bunch of oregano,3 and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and the two doorposts. And none of you should go out through the entrance of his house until morning!” (Exodus 12:22)

Any firstborn sons inside a house with bloodstains around the door will live through the night. But if any Israelite firstborn sons are wandering around outside, they will be subject to the death of the firstborn. Moshe gives the same explanation that God gave him:

“And God will pass through to strike down Egyptians, and will see the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, and God ufasach the entrance, and will not give [release?] the destruction to enter your houses to strike.” (Exodus 12: 23)4

ufasach (וּפָסַח) = will skip, will hop, will limp. (From the same root verb as the name of the annual observance, Pesach (פֶּסַח). Pesach is called “Passover” in English instead of Skipover.)

Why do the Israelites have to paint or sprinkle blood around the entrance of every house where they gather to eat that night?

The simple answer implied by Moshe’s speech is that God could not identify which houses contained Israelites without a sign at the entrance—even though this same God has the ability to identify who is a firstborn son.

Classic Jewish commentators, offended by the idea that God would not already know which houses contained Israelites, offered other answers. Rashbam considered “the destruction”an agent that God releases upon Egypt; the bloodstains “insure that God’s angel killing the firstborn will bypass the houses with the sign of the blood on their door-frames.”5

Perhaps Chizkuni was thinking of an “angel” of destruction when he wrote: “The blood on the entrances of the homes of the Israelites should form the equivalent of the letter ח, in order to protect the entrance so that the destructive force which would kill the firstborn inside would not carry out that command. … the letter ח could be a symbol of חיים, life.”6

The two doorposts and the lintel across the top do make a shape like the Hebrew letter ח. But according to the Mekhilta DeRabbi Ishmael, it is not necessary to posit an angel; marking the doorframe with blood is simply a commandment, and “… in reward for your performance of the commandment, I reveal myself and have compassion on you.”7

Some commentators wrote that performing this particular commandment required courage and trust in God, because the Egyptians worshipped a ram god and would attack anyone who slaughtered a lamb and applied its blood to their doorframes. However, only two ancient Egyptian temples were dedicated to a ram god, both farther south than the Nile delta where the pharaoh and the Israelites live in the book of Exodus.8

Furthermore, at that point in the story the Egyptians are desperate to get the Israelites out of their country so that their God will stop afflicting them with plagues. Even the pharaoh is getting desperate. Just before God gives Moshe the instructions for the first Passover, God tells him that once the death of the firstborn has happened,

“… after that he will send you out from here. When he sends you, it is finished; he will absolutely drive you away from here.” (Exodus 11:1)

Then God says that the Israelites must ask their Egyptian neighbors to give them silver and gold objects. The Egyptians hand over their valuables, because—

“… God gave the people grace in the eyes of the Egyptians … (Exodus11:3)

It seems the Egyptians are more afraid of the Israelites than the Israelites are of the Egyptians.

Other commentators have considered the application of lamb’s blood around the doorframe a symbolic act. In the Jerusalem Talmud, “Rebbi Eliezer ben Jacob says, why at the door? Because by the door they went from servitude to freedom.”9

Maybe emerging through that bloodstained doorway the next morning is like a birth into a new state of being.

What to eat

After the Israelites paint or sprinkle lamb’s blood on their door frames, God tells Moshe,

“Then they must eat the meat on that night, roasted in fire, and matzot, and on bitter herbs they must eat it.” (Exodus 12:8)

matzot (מַצּוֹת) = plural of matzah (מַצָּה) = unleavened bread: flat sheets of flour and water, baked quickly without sourdough or any other leavening.

Why must the meat be roasted? In the 13th century, Chizkuni wrote that roasting was necessary “so that the fragrance of the meat will assail the noses of the Egyptians and they will reflect on what is happening to their [ram] deity.”11

But in the 20th century, Everett Fox wrote: “Not raw or boiled, since what seems to be meant is an imitation of standard sacrifices.”12 Similarly, matzah was the type of bread offered to God at the altar.13

Why must the Israelites eat matzah and bitter herbs with the roasted meat? The Talmud explains:

“The reason for matzah is because our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt, as it is stated: “And they baked the dough that they took out of Egypt as cakes of matzot, for it was not leavened, as they were thrust out of Egypt and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual” (Exodus 12:39). The reason for bitter herbs is because the Egyptians embittered our forefathers’ lives in Egypt, as it is stated: “And they embittered their lives with hard service, in mortar and in brick; in all manner of service in the field, all the service that they made them serve was with rigor” (Exodus 1:14).”14

Chizkuni wrote: “The bitter herbs symbolize the slavery, the unleavened bread symbolizes freedom, and the meat of the Passover symbolizes … being saved. At the time when the Passover lamb was being consumed the firstborn Egyptians were being killed.”15

But by the 18th century, some commentators offered less symbolic explanations. Chayim ibn Attar wrote: “The requirement to eat bitter herbs with it is natural; Egyptians used to eat roast meat with something pungent as this enhanced the taste of the meat and enabled the person who ate it to thoroughly enjoy his meal.”16

And maybe God, on a night when the Israelites must eat a large dinner and also prepare to leave their homes forever at daybreak, prescribes the fastest way to bake new bread: mix flour and water and slap it in the oven without taking time for kneading it or letting it rise.17

Ready to go

But God has not finished prescribing how the Israelites must eat their last meal in their Egyptian homes.

“And like this you must eat it: [with] your hips girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staffs in your hand. And you must eat it in trembling haste. It is a pesach for God.” (Exodus 12:11)

Here the word pesach refers to a type of offering, anticipating the annual pesach offerings at the temple.18

Why must the Israelites eat a large meal in discomfort, standing up with their robes hiked up and tied around their hips, and holding s staff in one hand? They do not need to hurry for fear of the Egyptians, because the Egyptians want them to leave. Nor do they need to leave in a hurry because the pharaoh might change his mind again, since God said that the death of the firstborn will be the final plague.

So I agree with 14th-century rabbi Bachya ben Asher, who wrote: “The symbolic meaning of “with girded loins and your shoes on your feet” (verse 11), was to depict people who are eager to be on their way to a new destination.” 19

The Israelites must act as if they are in a hurry as a display of eagerness to leave Egypt and head toward Canaan.

Future observance

After repeating that the Israelites should mark their houses with blood so that God will skip over them, God wraps up the instructions to Moshe by saying:

“And this day will be a reminder for you, and you will celebrate it as a festival for God throughout your generations. A decree forever; you must celebrate it!”  (Exodus 12:15)

Then God decrees avoidance of leaven, consumption of matzah for seven days, and a holy convocation on the first and seventh day—but nothing about eating standing up. After the Israelites have left their Egyptian homes, God adds that future Pesach meals must be eaten inside the house, without breaking bones, and men may eat it only if they are circumcized.20

The Passover ritual in the Torah portion Bo adds drama to the story of the night before the Israelites leave Egypt. It also provides an opportunity for God to order future Passover rituals.

From the 10th century B.C.E. to the destruction of the first temple in 587 B.C.E., Pesach was a spring pilgrimage-festival in which citizens of the kingdom of Judah brought lambs to slaughter at the temple and eat there, not at home, with unleavened bread.21 This practice was reinstated during the time of the second temple, 537 B.C.E. to 70 C.E.22 The purpose of the festival was to give God offerings in gratitude for rescuing the Israelites from servitude in Egypt.

After the fall of the second temple, Jews began celebrating Passover through a long and elaborate evening ritual at home. The basics of the ritual Jews use today were set down in the Mishnah of the Talmud tractate Pesachim around 200 C.E., and involve symbolic foods, four cups of wine, prayers, quotes from the Torah, and more—including a retelling of the story from the beginning of the book of Exodus through this week’s Torah portion, Bo. Blood is not daubed on doorways, eating lamb is optional, and participants are told to recline, not stand up.

Yet the underlying purpose of the first Passover ritual, the festival in temple times, and the ritual since 200 C.E. is the same: to teach the importance of freedom.

In the portion Bo, the Israelites must pretend to tremble with eagerness for their release from servitude, and stepping through their bloodstained doorways is like being born. In the temple festival, the technology of animal sacrifice is used to thank God for freedom and independence. And the script (hagadah) for the Passover that Jews have been celebrating for almost two millennia, the key statement and theme is “We were slaves; now we are free”.

Of course Jews have not always been free during the course of history, but we can pray to be free again. And many Jews today enhance the Passover ritual with prayers and symbols of hope that other peoples will be freed from oppression.

I pray that it may be so, without bloodshed, and with trembling haste.

  1. Bekhor (בְּכוֹר) = firstborn male, son who was born first—no matter how old. In this case, the firstborn humans include both the first son of a man (such as the pharaoh) and the first son of a woman (such as the female slave).
  2. The lunar month of Aviv (“ripening grain”) was renamed Nisan in the 6th century B.C.E. It begins in March or April, when barley and wheat planted in the fall are forming ears of grain.
  3. See my post Pesach, Metzora, & Chukat: Blood and Oregano.
  4. In Exodus 12:13 God commands virtually the same thing, but says “and I will skip over you, and for you it will not be a blow to destruction (lemashchit) when I strike down the land of Egypt.”
  5. Rashbam, the acronym for 12th-century rabbi Shmuel ben Meir, translated in www.sefaria.org.
  6. Chizkuni, the acronym for 13th-century rabbi Chizkiah ben Manoach, translated in www.sefaria.org.
  7. Mekhilta DeRabbi Ishmael, 3rd century C.E., quoted by Nehama Leibowitz, New Studies in Shemot (Exodus), translated by Aryeh Newman in 1976, Maor Wallach Press, Jerusalem, 1996,p. 199.
  8. The ram god Heryshaf was worshipped at Henen-Nesut, renamed Heracleopolis. The ram god Khnum was worshipped at Elephantine Island, and in the 5th century B.C.E., the priests of Khnum wrecked the temple next door, which belonged to a Jewish colony, but the Elephantine papyrus in which a Jewish official recorded this does not say there was any loss of life.
  9. Jerusalem Talmud, Kiddushin 1:2:31, translated in www.sefaria.org.
  10. Chizkuni, ibid.
  11. Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses, Schocken Books, New York, 1983, p. 315.
  12. See my post Pesach: Being Unleavened, Part 2.
  13. Talmud Bavli, Pesachim 116b, translated by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz in the Koren “William Davidson Talmud”, www.sefaria.org.
  14. Chizkuni, ibid.
  15. 18th-century rabbi Chayim ibn Attar, Or HaChayim, translated in www.sefaria.org.
  16. Tractate Pischa 16:39, translated in www.sefaria.org.
  17. See my post Pesach: Being Unleavened, Part 2 for an alternate explanation.
  18. See Deuteronomy 16:2.
  19. Rabbeinu Bachya ben Asher, 14th century C.E. , translated in www.sefaria.org.
  20. Exodus 13:43-49.
  21. See Deuteronomy 16:1-8. When scribes wrote Deuteronomy, the “place that God will choose” meant the temple in Jerusalem.
  22. Ezra 6:19-22; Talmud Bavli, Pesachim.

Va-eira & Shemot: Patchwork

Sometimes a narrative section in the Torah flows as smoothly as a tale told by a master storyteller. Other times the narrative is a patchwork of different versions of the story, with obvious seams.

Those who believe that God dictated every word in the first five books of the bible to Moshe (“Moses” in English) either ignore the seams, or do some mental acrobatics to explain them away. I like to imagine that God’s dictation is interrupted when God gets distracted by other things happening in the world. But I daresay the single-author stalwarts would never accept a God who has trouble multi-tasking.

I prefer to explain the patchwork parts of Torah by applying a key hypothesis of modern source criticism: that several versions of the same story were circulating in ancient Israel when a redactor1 combined them to produce what became the authoritative version, the version recorded from then on in Torah scrolls. Sometimes the resulting narrative reads seamlessly. But some seams are definitely showing in the stitching together of last week’s Torah portion, Shemot (Exodus/Shemot 1:1-6:1) with this week’s Torah portion, Va-eira (Exodus/Shemot 6:2-9:35)—particularly regarding the question of who is qualified to speak for God.

Who speaks?

Moses Adores God in the Burning Bush, by James Tissot, ca. 1900

The first time Moshe goes to Mount Sinai, in the portion Shemot, he is a shepherd. He walks over to look at a bush that burns but is not consumed, and finds himself having a conversation with God—the God of his Israelite birth parents in Egypt. He learns that God plans to bring the oppressed Israelites out of Egypt and to the land of Canaan, and that he will be God’s agent.

Moshe tries five times to get out of this assignment. His penultimate attempt is to protest that he is a very poor speaker.

Then God said to him: “Who placed a mouth in the human being? … Is it not I, God? And now go! I myself will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you will speak.” But he said: “Excuse me please, my lord. Please send by the hand of [someone] you should send!” (Exodus 4:11-12-13)

But God is not about to send someone else to liberate the Israelites. So God compromises, saying:

“Is not your brother Aharon the Levite? I know that he can certainly speak. And also, hey! He is going out to meet you, and he will see you and rejoice in his heart. And you will speak to him, and you will put the words in his mouth. And I myself will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you both what you must do. And he will speak for you to the people. And he himself will be like a mouth for you, and you yourself will be like a god for him. And this staff, you will take it in your hand, because you will do the signs.” (Exodus 4:14-17)

In other words, Moshe will be God’s spokesperson, and Aharon will be Moshe’s spokesperson. Moshe will use his staff to initiate the miracles God has planned to impress first the Israelites, then the pharaoh.

Who holds the staff?

Moshe heads toward Egypt, and meets his brother at Mount Sinai. He tells Aharon everything he knows so far. Then both men go to Egypt and gather the Israelite elders.

And Aharon spoke all the words that God had spoken to Moshe, and he did the signs before the eyes of the people. And the people believed, and they paid attention … (Exodus 4:30-31)

Things seem to be going according to God’s plan. Next Moshe and Aharon go to the pharaoh and request that the Israelites get three days off work to go into the wilderness and sacrifice to their God. The pharaoh doubles their work instead, requiring them to find their own straw while still making their daily quota of bricks. The Israelite foremen blame Moshe and Aharon, and Moshe asks God:

“My lord, why did you do harm to this people? Why did you send me? Since I came to Paroh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people; and you have certainly not rescued your people!” (Exodus 5:22-23)

Paroh (פַּּרְעֺה) =the title of the king of Egypt, “Pharaoh” in English. The portion Shemot ends with God saying the equivalent of “Just wait and see”.

Who memorizes the divine words?

The portion Va-eira then begins with God repeating what Moshe already learned on Mount Sinai. Then God says:

“Therefore, say to the Israelites: I am Y-H-V-H. I will bring you out from under the forced labor of Egypt, and I will rescue you from serving them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. And I will take you for myself as a people, and I will be for you as a God, and you will know that I am GOD, your God, who brings you out from under the forced labor of Egypt. And I will bring you to the land where I raised my hand [in an oath] to give to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and I will give it to you as a possession. I am Y-H-V-H.” (Exodus 6:6-8)

This is quite a speech to memorize and deliver, for a man who knows he is a poor speaker. But the next verse says:

Then Moshe spoke thus to the Israelites. But they did not listen to Moshe, due to shortness of spirit and due to hard servitude. (Exodus 6:9)

In the portion Shemot, Moshe refused to speak to the Israelites without Aharon as an interpreter. But here in Va-eira, Moshe simply tells the people what God said—with no speech defect, no difficulty with Hebrew, no hesitation over the words. Aharon is not mentioned.

Classic commentary does not try to explain this sudden change. But the change makes sense if a redactor has suddenly switched to a different version of the story. Modern source scholarship identifies the story of Moshe’s recruitment on the mountain in the portion Shemot with a non-P (non-priestly) tradition.2 The version from the P tradition begins with Exodus 6:2, which is also the first verse of the portion Va-eira.

Clumsy lips

Right after the overworked Israelites ignore Moshe’s message, God orders Moshe to speak to the pharaoh. Moshe objects:

“Hey, the Israelites do not listen to me. Then how will Paroh listen to me? And I have foreskinned lips!” Then GOD spoke to Moshe and to Aharon, and commanded them regarding the Israelites and Paroh, king of Egypt—to bring out the Israelites from the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 6:12-13)

According to Richard Elliott Friedman, these two verses were added by a redactor.3 But why? Moshe and Aharon have already received God’s instructions. “Foreskinned lips” might indicate that Moshe’s problem as an orator is a speech defect, and the Israelites who were overworked and short of breath did not invest the energy to understand him. But there is no need to insert Moshe’s objection here, since he describes his lips that way again after an intermission giving Moshe and Aharon’s genealogy.

And GOD spoke to Moshe, saying: “I am GOD. Speak to Paroh, king of Egypt, everything that I speak to you.” And Moshe said before GOD: “Hey, I have foreskinned lips! So how will Paroh listen to me?” (Exodus 6:29-30)

Who speaks to the pharaoh?

In the P version of the story in the portion Va-eira, it appears that the whole conversation on Mount Sinai recorded in the portion Shemot never happened, because next God reacts to Moshe’s protest as if it were news, and tells Moshe the same solution God gave on Mount Sinai:

“See, I place you as a god to Paroh, and your brother Aharon will be your prophet. You yourself will speak everything that I command you, and your brother Aharon will speak to Paroh, and he will send out the Israelites from his land.” (Exodus 7:1-2)

Does this mean that from now on, God will speak to Moshe, Moshe will speak to Aharon, Aharon will speak to the pharaoh, and Moshe will initiate miracles with his staff—the same arrangement God decided on in the Mount Sinai version?

No.

First Moshe learns that God will harden the pharaoh’s heart after each miracle, so he will not let the Israelites go until God is ready to bring them out of Egypt. Then God gives instructions for a preliminary miracle:

“When Paroh speaks to you, saying: Give us a miracle for yourselves!—then you must say to Aharon: Take your staff and throw it down before Paroh; it will become a reptile.” (Exodus 7: 9)

Already Aharon is the brother wielding the staff.

The first miracle that affects the whole country is turning the water of the Nile River into blood. At God’s command, Moshe warns the pharaoh at length. Then Aharon strikes the surface of the river, and God turns the water into blood (Exodus 7:14-20).

Moses Speaks to Pharaoh, by James Tissot, ca. 1900

The next miracle, frogs, goes the same way, with Moshe speaking to Pharaoh, and Aharon wielding his staff (Exodus 7:26-8:2). Pharaoh summons both of them and promises to release the Israelites if they plead with their God to remove the frogs. With no prompting from God, Moshe asks Pharaoh to name the day of the frog removal, and adds that the death of the frogs on that exact day will prove God’s unique power (Exodus 8:5-7). For someone who claimed in the portion Shemot that he was “not a man of words”,4 he is thinking on his feet and speaking eloquently and confidently.

Moshe continues to be the one who speaks to Pharaoh throughout the rest of the portion Va-eira. Aharon stretches out his staff to initiate the miraculous plague of gnats or lice (Exodus 8:12-13), but Moshe holds out his staff to initiate the plague of hail (Exodus 9:22-23). Regardless of who wields his staff, Moshe does all the talking—and continues through the last three miracles—locusts, darkness, and death of the firstborn—in the following Torah portion, Bo.

Throughout the narrative of the ten miracles or plagues, non-P sources alternate with P sources, according to modern source scholars. But the redactor of this section of narrative stitches together the two versions of the story seamlessly, maintaining Moshe as the prophet who speaks directly to the pharaoh, and showing his increasing confidence and authority.5

But in the narrative section from Moshe’s call to prophecy on Mount Sinai (in the portion Shemot) to the miracle of turning water into blood (in the portion Va-eira), the redactor hops between sources without harmonizing them.

I wish the redactor had used more care. It is not that hard to redact; every week I write a lot about the weekly Torah portion or haftarah reading, then go back and select which paragraphs I will actually use for my blog post, often rearranging them in the process. If something I have written does not fit the theme, I remove it and save it for another post. If one paragraph seems to contradict the section before it, I add an explanation. And if I actually do contradict myself, I think about it and start over!

However, I am only redacting my own writing. What if I had the job of combining two earlier stories that I viewed as equally sacred? Perhaps the redactor of this part of the book of Exodus could not bear to eliminate either the narrative that views Moshe as unable or unwilling to speak, or the narrative in which Moshe speaks eloquently to the pharaoh.

What would I do, faced with that dilemma? I would include both—but rearrange the passages slightly, and write a little extra material, to show that Moshe is gradually learning how to speak and gaining confidence.

  1. Although the current usage of “redact” usually focuses on making deletions from a piece of writing, biblical scholarship uses “redact” to mean selecting and arranging various pieces of writing to make a single document.
  2. Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918), formulated a “documentary hypothesis” identifying different passages in the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy) as coming from one of four sources: J, E, P, and D. Source scholarship today abounds with disagreements about non-P sources, as well as different theories for dating P and other sources. But the consensus is that the P (priestly) source is different from all other sources and is clearly identifiable.
  3. Richard Elliott Friedman, the Bible with Sources Revealed, HarperCollins, New York, 2003, p. 128.
  4. Exodus 4:10. See my post Shemot: Not a Man of Words.
  5. See my post Shemot to Bo: Moses Finds his Voice.

Haftarat Shemot or Matot—Jeremiah: A Congenital Prophet

(In this post I refer to people by their Hebrew names first, but to books and places by their English names.)

The English word “prophet” means “1. one who utters divinely inspired revelations. … 2. one gifted with more than ordinary spiritual and moral insight. … 3. one who foretells future events: predictor.”1

The Biblical Hebrew word navi (נָבִיא), routinely translated as “prophet”, means: 1. one who goes into a temporary altered state and experiences God.2 2. one who receives messages from God and communicates at least some of them to other people.3

Even the second kind of navi does not predict the future, but rather warns people about what God will do to them if they do not change their ways.4 Everyone in the Hebrew Bible who hears or reads one of these prophecies has a choice: to continue their behavior and eventually suffer the prescribed doom from God, or to stop doing the wrong things and avoid the doom.

Ironically, although the recipients of prophecies have free will (the ability to choose their own actions), the prophets themselves may not.

Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, by Rembrandt, ca. 1630

A time for prophecy

Yirmeyahu (“Jeremiah” in English) seems to have no choice but to prophesy, whether he wants to or not. His dilemma is introduced in the haftarah reading Jeremiah 1:1-2:3, which goes with this week’s Torah portion, Shemot, according to the Sefardi tradition.5 The book of Jeremiah opens:

The words of Yirmeyahu, son of Chilkiyahu, one of the priests who were at Anatot in the territory of Benjamin. (Jeremiah 1:1)

Already we know that the father of Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) is a priest, perhaps even the high priest named Chilkiyahu during the reign of King Yoshiyahu (“Josiah” in English).6 Priesthood is hereditary in Ancient Israel, so Yermiyahu (Jeremiah) is born a priest. He is also born in the territory of Benjamin, close to Jerusalem, the capital city of the kingdom of Judah.

Before he reaches adulthood, he finds out that he is also a prophet.

The word of God happened to him in the days of Yoshiyahu son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirtieth year of his reign. (Jeremiah 1:2)

King Yoshiyahu (“Josiah” in English) ruled the kingdom of Judah from 640 to 608 B.C.E.—after the Assyrian Empire to the north had become weak and ceded some of northern kingdom of Israel to Judah, and before the new Babylonian empire had grown strong. According to 2 Kings 22 and 23, King Yoshiyahu crusaded to get rid of all the shrines and priests serving other gods.7

There is not much work for Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) until after King Yoshiyahu dies, since the main roles of a prophet during the time of the Israelite kingdoms are to challenge government policies and to shame or frighten rich citizens into reforming. But then Babylon’s power grows, and the kings of Judah make no changes in policy to address the threat. The word of God happens to Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) more often, and many of his prophesies warn that unless people return to the exclusive worship of God, and embrace God’s ethical rules, the Babylonians will conquer Judah and Jerusalem.

And it happened through the days of Yehoyakim son of Yoshiyahu, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Tzidekiyahu son of Yoshiyahu, until Jerusalem went into exile in the fifth month. (Jeremiah 1:3)

The reign of King Tzidekiyahu (“Zedekiah” in English) ended in 586 B.C.E. when the Babylonian army completed its conquest of Judah by destroying Jerusalem and exiling almost all of its remaining citizens to Babylon.

A congenital prophet

The narrative in this week’s haftarah then switches to the first person, and Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) speaks.

And the word of God happened to me, saying: “Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you; and before you went out of the womb, I set you apart as holy. A prophet to the nations I appointed you.” (Jeremiah 1:4-5)

What is God communicating here?

“Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you.” Psalm 139 is the only other biblical passage that says God gives human fetuses their physical form and some aspect of their personality:

For you yourself provided my conscience;

            You wove me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13)

Furthermore, in Psalm 139 God knows all human thoughts:

God, you have examined me and you know me.

You know [when] I sit down and stand up,

            You discern my intention from afar. (Psalm 139:1-2)

The new claim in the book of Jeremiah is that God knows Yirmeyahu even before weaving him together in the womb. This might mean that God knows what certain individuals will be like in the future. Or it might mean that God creates someone’s personality even before creating that person’s body.

“And before you went out of the womb, I set you apart as holy.” This statement could mean merely that Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) was born into the priesthood, since priests are holy in the sense of being set apart for temple service and restricted regarding marriage and mourning.8 But it might also mean that God made him, in utero, even holier than a priest, even more set apart from normal life.

“A prophet to the nations I appointed you.” In the rest of the book of Jeremiah, the prophet addresses most of his prophecies to the citizens of Judah, although he does utter some prophecies about other nations.9 But the point in this verse is that before Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) was born, God determined how he would spend his entire adult life.

A right of refusal?

That raises the question of whether it is even possible for Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) to refuse to speak as a prophet. (Presumably he cannot help hearing, or otherwise experiencing, God.) Some modern commentators assert that he does have the power to refuse. For example, Plaut wrote:

“The call to Jeremiah may thus be seen to express both predetermination and freedom: the child was born with particular gifts and a high degree of religious sensitivity. But giving his life to a pursuit of the divine call—with all its rewards, difficulties and dangers—was a decision that Jeremiah had to make for himself.”10

After God’s opening salvo, Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) protests that he does not have the eloquence to be a prophet.

“Ah-ah, my lord God! Hey, I do not know how to speak, since I am a na-ar.” (Jeremiah 1:6)

na-ar(נַעַר) = boy or young man.

He says this, according to Malbim, because he lacks confidence, because he does not know how to speak well in front of a congregation, and because he is afraid people will kill him on account of his prophecies.11

And God said to me: “Don’t you say ‘I am a na-ar’. For you will go wherever I send you, and you will speak whatever I command you.” (Jeremiah 1:7)

Midrash Tanchuma explains, ominously: “That is, against your will you will go, and against your will you will speak.”12

Indeed, later in the book Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) complains:

“… the word of God happens to me, for scorn and derision all day. So I thought: I will not mention him, and I will not speak any more in his name. But it [God’s word] happened in my mind like a burning fire shut up in my bones, and it exhausted me to hold it in, and I could not endure.” (Jeremiah 20:8-9)

By the prophet’s own testimony, he has no freedom of choice when it comes to prophecy.

A promise of rescue

After God tells Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) that he must go and speak at God’s command, God attempts to reassure him by saying:

“Don’t be afraid in front of them! For I am with you to rescue you.” (Jeremiah 1:8)

“To rescue you” could mean merely to rescue him if his speech stumbles. But God makes the real meaning clear before the interview is over:

“And hey, I appoint you this day as a fortified city, and as an iron pillar, and as bronze walls, against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, against its officers, against its priests, and against the people of the land. And they will battle against you, but they will not prevail over you, because I am with you,” declares God, “to rescue you!” (Jeremiah 1:18)

Later in the book, the prophecies of Yermiyahy (Jeremiah) are so unpopular that he needs to be rescued from various death threats.13 The worst is when he tries to leave Jerusalem on a business trip, and a guard at the gate accuses him of defecting to the Babylonians. City officials beat him, imprison him, and eventually convince King Tzediyahu to put him to death. Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) is lowered into a pit with no water, only mud. But before he dies of thirst and hunger, the king changes his mind and has him pulled up and returned to the regular prison. He remains there until the Babylonians capture Jerusalem.14 Then, while the city is burned down and its nobles are killed, the Babylonians remove him, give him food, and set him free.15

The characters in the Hebrew Bible have fewer choices than we do in today’s world, but almost all of them have free will, the ability to choose to do something different. We know this because the prophets who utter prophecies issue warnings about how people will suffer if they do not change their ways.

But do the prophets themselves have free will? It is hard to know, since even reluctant prophets like Moses come to accept their role in the world—except for Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah), who hates being a prophet so much that he wishes he had never been born. He declares:

“Accursed is the day that I was born! … Why did I ever go out from the womb to see trouble and grief, and to use up my days in shame!” (Jeremiah 20:14-20)

Today we have more choices than anyone in ancient Jerusalem, yet our range of choices is still limited by our starting point. A person is born into a family; events can change one’s upbringing as time goes on, but one’s first environment makes its mark. A person is born with predetermined genes; they can be turned on or off by events, but not replaced by different genes.16 Some infants have congenital defects. Some, for all we know, might be congenital prophets.

Do we have more control over our own lives than Yirmeyahu? Or are we just less aware that someone or something is pulling the strings?

  1. www.merriam-webster.com, 2025.
  2. E.g. 1 Samuel 10:5-6 and 10-13.
  3. E.g. Deutereonomy 34:10, 1 Samuel 3:20, etc. There are also false prophets, as in Deuteronomy 13:1-4.
  4. Deuteronomy 18:22 is an exception to this rule; the book of Jonah is a prime example.
  5. The haftarah reading Jeremiah 1:1-2:3 goes with the portion Matot in Numbers according to the Ashkenazi tradition.
  6. 2 Kings 22:4ff.
  7. 2 Kings 22:1-23:25.
  8. Leviticus 21:1-15.
  9. Jeremiah 9:25, 25:9–29, 27:3–11, and chapters 46–51.
  10. W. Gunther Plaut, The Haftarah Commentary, UAHC Press, New York, 1996, p. 413.
  11. Malbim is the acronym of Meir Leibush ben Yehiel Michel Weisser (1809–1879).
  12. Midrash Tanchuma, c.500–c.800 C.E., translation in www.sefaria.org.
  13. Jeremiah 11:21-23, 26:8-11, 26:24, 36:26.
  14. Jeremiah chapters 37-38.
  15. Jeremiah 40:1-4.
  16. At least not yet; gene splicing is still in its infancy.

Vayechi & 1 Kings: Last Will and Testament

The patriarch Yaakov (“Jacob” in English), also called Yisrael (“Israel”), dies in this week’s Torah portion, Vayechi (Genesis 47:28-50:26). King David dies in this week’s haftarah (reading from the Prophets), which is 1 Kings 2:1-12. Both dying men tell their heirs what to do after they have expired. But their instructions are about different kinds of unfinished business.

Choosing an executor

Old Man on his Deathbed, by Gustav Klimt, 1900

And the time drew near for Yisrael to die. And he called for his son Yoseif, and said to him— (Genesis 47:29)

Yoseif (“Joseph”) is Yaakov’s beloved eleventh son. Although normally a man’s oldest son inherits more of his estate, and responsibility for his family, Yoseif is the viceroy of Egypt and already takes care of his whole extended family, including his father. So Yaakov calls for Yoseif when he is approaching death.

And the time drew near for David to die. And he commanded his son Shlomoh, saying— (1 Kings 2:1)

Shlomoh (“Solomon” in English) is King David’s tenth son. While David is lying feebly in bed, his fourth son, Adoniyahu, gets himself anointed and proclaimed king without his father’s knowledge. (David’s oldest son, Amon, is already dead.) Batsheva (“Bathsheba”), David’s favored wife, and Natan, David’s prophet, rush into action. They get David to protest that his heir is Batsheva’s son Shlomoh, then get Shlomoh anointed and proclaimed king that same day. Adoniyahu’s supporters abandon him, and Shlomoh becomes king. (1 Kings 1:5-53) So David calls for Shlomoh when he is close to death.

Both Yaakov and David are practical in their choice of executor of their last wishes, choosing the son whom they trust and who has the most power to act.

Directions for burial

Yaakov’s first instruction to his son Yoseif is about his burial.

“If, please, I have found favor in your eyes, please place your hand under my thigh. And do with me loyal-kindness and faithfulness: do not, please, bury me in Egypt! [When] I lie down with my fathers, then carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial site!” (Genesis 47:29-30)

Yaakov’s deference to Yoseif shows that he knows he no longer has authority. Rabbi Chayim ibn Attar added: “Had he not said ‘please,’ it might have sounded as if he had not been grateful for the sustenance Joseph had provided thus far.”1

The request that Yoseif put a hand under his thigh (the most sacred way to swear an oath in the book of Genesis)2 shows Yaakov’s determination to be buried in Canaan.

Stairs inside the caves of Makhpelah

Lying down with one’s fathers and being gathered to one’s fathers are idioms for dying; in ancient Israel, family members were buried in the same cave for generations. Yaakov wants to be buried in “their burial site”—the cave of Makhpelah near Hebron.

Then he [Yoseif] said: “I myself will do according to your words”. But he [Yaakov] said: “Swear to me!” And he swore to him. Then Yisrael bowed, at the head of the bed. (Genesis 47:30-31) 

The oath does turn out to be useful. When Yoseif asks Pharaoh permission for himself and his brothers to take Yaakov’s body to Canaan, he says: “My father made me swear …” and Pharaoh answers: “Go up and bury your father, as he had you swear.” (Genesis 50:5-6)

Why does Yaakov care about where he is buried? Rashi summarized a Talmudic-era midrash:

“Because its [Egypt’s] soil will ultimately become lice which would swarm beneath my body. Further, those who die outside the Land of Israel will not live again at the Resurrection except after the pain caused by the body rolling through underground-passages until it reaches the Holy Land. And another reason is that the Egyptians should not make me (my corpse or my tomb) the object of idolatrous worship.”3

S.R. Hirsch added a psychological reason: that after seventeen years in Egypt, Yaakov noticed that his whole family had come to think of Egypt as home. “It was sufficient reason for him to say to them: ‘You may hope and wish to live in Egypt, but I do not even want to be buried there.’”4

And Karen Armstrong pointed out that Yaakov wanted to continue the precedent set by his grandfather Avraham, who bought the burial cave—the first bit of land in Canaan owned by the family. Avraham and Sarah are buried there, along with Yaakov’s father Yitzchak (“Isaac”) and mother Rivkah (“Rebecca”), and his own first wife, Leah.

“Finally, Jacob gave instructions that he be buried not beside the beloved Rachel in Bethlehem but beside Leah in the family tomb at Hebron.  For once, he did not allow himself to give in to his own inclinations but fulfilled his official patriarchal duty.”5

King David, however, gives his son Shlomoh no instructions regarding his burial—perhaps because he assumes his son will bury him in Jerusalem, where they both live. And King Shlomoh does.

Yaakov’s instructions for his estate

Yaakov’s health declines further, and Yoseif brings his two sons to receive a final blessing from their grandfather.

Then Yisrael gathered his strength and he sat up in the bed. (Genesis 48:2)

He tells Yoseif that back in Canaan, God appeared to him and told him:

“Here I am, making you fruitful and numerous, and I will appoint you as a congregation of peoples, and I will give this land to your descendants after you, as a possession forever!”(Genesis 48:4)

Yaakov now considers the promise of Canaan his estate, and he wants a say in how his descendants will divide up the land. So he tells Yoseif:

“And now your two sons, the ones born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, they are mine; Efrayim and Menasheh, they will be mine like Reuven and Shimon!” (Genesis 48:5)

Reuven and Shimon (“Simeon” in English) are Yaakov’s first and second-born sons. In effect, adopting Efrayim and Menasheh gives Yoseif the double inheritance of the firstborn.  Instead of getting one share, as Yoseif, he will get two shares, in the name of his two sons.

Yaakov starts talking about the death of Yoseif’s mother, Rachel, then notices the two people standing next to Yoseif. At this point, he is nearly blind.

And Yisrael saw Yosef’s sons, and he said: “Who are these?” And Yoseif said to his father: “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” Then he said: “Please bring them to me, and I will bless them.” (Genesis 48:9)

Yaakov kisses and embraces his grandsons, overcome with emotion.

Then Yoseif took them away from his knees, and they bowed down, their noses to the ground. (Genesis 48:11)

In the Hebrew Bible, placing a newborn infant on one’s knees signifies an adoption.6 Although Yoseif’s sons are young men now, having been born before their grandfather came to Egypt seventeen years before, the symbolism may be the same.

The scribe who wrote down this part of the Torah portion had another reason for reassigning Yoseif’s portion of Canaan to Efrayim and Menasheh. From circa 900 to 720 B.C.E., the two kingdoms of Israel consisted of the territories of twelve tribes: ten tribes in the northern kingdom of Israel (Efrayim, Menasheh, Reuven, Shimon, Gad, Dan, Yissachar, Zevulun, Asher, and Naftali) and two tribes in the southern kingdom of Judah (Yehudah and Binyamin). Some scribes connected these twelve tribes with the twelve sons of Yaakov/Yisrael. To make the numbers work out, they assigned two tribes (Efrayim and Menasheh) to Yaakov’s eleventh son, Yoseif, and excluded the tribe of Yaakov’s third son, Levi, from the count, since the Levites were scattered throughout the two kingdoms and did not have a territory of their own.

As the book of Genesis draws to a close, Yaakov wants his family to return to Canaan, though he does not issue an explicit order about when they should go. According to the book of Exodus, Yaakov’s descendants stay in Egypt for 430 years before they finally head north.7

David’s instructions for execution

Dividing up territory is not a problem in the story of King David’s death, since David’s estate is the whole kingdom of Israel, before it separated into two kingdoms. David’s chosen son, Shlomoh, has already been anointed as king, so he gets the entire estate. But David has more to say to his son the king.

And the time drew near for David to die. And he commanded his son Shlomoh, saying: “I am going the way of all the earth. And you must be strong, and be a man!”  (1 Kings 2:1-2)

When Yaakov gives his deathbed instructions to his son Yoseif, Yoseif is 57 years old and has been the viceroy of Egypt for 27 years. When David gives his deathbed instructions to his son Shlomoh, Shlomoh is about 20 years old and has barely begun his reign.

David’s Dying Charge to Solomon, by Ferdinand Bol, ca. 1700

After reminding his son that he must follow God with all his mind and soul, David moves on to his primary concern: some unfinished business from his own reign.

First he orders Shlomoh to punish Yoav (“Joab” in English), David’s nephew and the general of his army. Yoav stealthily murdered the general of northern Israel, Avneir (“Abner”), right after David and Avneir had concluded a peace treaty in which the northern territories would join David’s kingdom. (See my post 2 Samuel: David the King.) Yoav’s motivation was revenge for his brother’s death at Avneir’s hands on the battlefield. The usual punishment for revenge killing was execution. But King David neither executed nor demoted Yoav—perhaps because of family feeling, or perhaps because he feared that Yoav was becoming too powerful to oppose.

Later, King David’s third son, Avshalom (“Absalom”), usurped the throne. David took refuge in Machanayim and sent out troops, but he asked Yoav and his other two commanders not to kill Avshalom. However, when Avshalom was snagged by a tree, and Yoav killed him.8 That was the last straw for King David, who then gave Amasa Yoav’s post as a commander.9 The next time Yoav and Amasa met, Yoav grabbed Amasa’s beard with one hand, and with the other hand stabbed him in the belly.10 Again King David did not punish his dangerous nephew; he even let Yoav become his general.

Now David wants Shlomoh to deliver the punishment that he could not manage during his own lifetime.

“… you yourself know what Yoav son of Tzeruyah did to me … to Avneir son of Neir, and to Amasa son of Yeter: he murdered them! … And you must act according to your chokhmah, and you must not let his gray head go down in peace to Sheol!” (1 Kings 2:5-6)

chokhmah (חׇכְמָה) = wisdom, technical skill, aptitude, experience, good sense.

Sheol (שְׁאוֹל) = the silent underworld where every person goes at death.

Next he tells Shlomoh to keep rewarding the sons of Barzilai, who fed David’s men during the war with Avshalom.11 Finally, he brings up Shimi son of Gera, who cursed and threw rocks at King David when he was fleeing Jerusalem after Avshalom’s coup. When David returned, he promised Shimi that he would not execute him.12 Now he regrets that promise.

“And now you must not exempt him from punishment! …  you yourself know what you must do to him, and bring down his gray head in blood to Sheol!” Then David lay with his fathers, and he was buried in the City of David. (1 Kings 2:9-10)

David wants the execution of two men whom he had pardoned when he was king, and King Shlomoh does arrange their deaths—because he, too, does not trust Yoav, and because Shimi violated Shlomoh’s condition that he could live in peace as long as he did not leave Jerusalem.13

Today we still need to name an executor of our last will and testament. Like both Yaakov and David, many of us appoint one of our children, the one who has the most ability to carry out our wishes.

Few people today are in a position to leave a whole country as a bequest. But whatever we do leave is important to us: wealth to improve the lives of our heirs, heirlooms that have personal meaning to us, and sometimes instructions for more than our own burial.

We may believe that we can make sure everything happens the way we want it to after our deaths. But that is unrealistic. Our heirs will do as they think best, not as we think best.

At least Yaakov and David die knowing that their surviving children are doing well in life, and that the beloved children who will be their executors are successful and respected. So may it be for us today.

  1. Chayim ibn Attar, Or HaChayim, 18th century, translation in www.sefaria.org.
  2. See my post Vayechi, Chayei Sarah, & Vayishlach: A Touching Oath.
  3. Rashi (the acronym for 11th-century Rabbi Shlomoh Yitzchaki), summarizing Bereishit Rabbah 76:3, translation in www.sefaria.org.
  4. 19th-century rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, reprinted in The Hirsch Chumash: Sefer Bereshis, English translation by Daniel Haberman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 2002, p. 846.
  5. Karen Armstrong, In the Beginning, Ballantine Books, New York, 1997, pp. 115-16.
  6. Genesis 30:3-6, Ruth 4:16-17.
  7. Exodus 12:40.
  8. 2 Samuel 18:14.
  9. 2 Samuel 19:4.
  10. 2 Samuel 20:9-10.
  11. Barzilai appears in 2 Samuel 17:27-29 and 19:32-41.
  12. Shimi appears in 2 Samuel 16:5-10 and 19:20-25.
  13. See 1 Kings 2:28-35 on Yoav, and 1 Kings 2:36-46 on Shimi.

Vayigash & Veyechi: Yoseif’s Theology, Part 2

Before we look at the new concept of God that Yoseif (“Joseph” in English) shares with his brothers in this week’s Torah portion, Vayigash (Genesis/Bereishit 44:18-47:27), let’s look at what the characters in the book of Genesis already believe about God’s ongoing involvement in the universe.1

  1. God controls the weather, including winds, floods, and storms of hail and sulfur, and wreaks destruction thereby (Genesis 6:13, 7:11, 8:1, 18:21, 19:24-15).
  2. God blesses some individuals with success and curses some with failure (Genesis 4:14, 4:17, 12:2-324:35, 24:56, 26:28-29).
  3. God punishes people for certain ethical violations, including: unwarranted murder (Genesis 4:23-24), gratuitous violence (Genesis 6:13), human bloodshed (Genesis 9:6), and raping guests (Genesis 19:4-15).
  4. God can inflict and heal disease (Genesis 12:17-18, 20:17-18).
  5. God shares the aversion in the Ancient Near East to a man committing adultery with a married woman (Genesis 12:18-19, 20:1-7). Yoseif assumes that adultery would be “a great wrong before God” in Genesis 39:7-9. (See my post Mikeitz & Vasyeishev: Yoseif’s Theology, Part 1.)
  6. God gives people significant dreams (Genesis 15:13-16, 20:3, 22:1-3, 26:24, 28:11-16, 31:24, 31:29, 31:42, 32:25-31). Yoseif goes further and claims that dream interpretations also come from God.2
  7. Only God can “open wombs”, giving childless women children (Genesis 17:16-21, 18:10-15, 21:1-2, 25:21, 29:31. 30:2. 30:22-23).
  8. Perhaps God can influence the course of history; God makes promises to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov that their descendants will someday own the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:7, 132:14-17, 15:7, 15:18-21, 17:8, 26:2-3, 28:13, 35:12), but Avraham doubts it will happen (Genesis 15:8 ), and the other two patriarchs are silent on the subject.
  9. Perhaps God can influence more immediate events; three characters pray to God for specific outcomes (Avraham’s steward in Genesis 23:12-19; Yitzchak (“Isaac”) in Genesis 25:21, 27:28-33, and 28:3-4; and Yaakov (“Jacob”) in Genesis 32:10-13).

Yoseif’s relationship with God

Joseph Interprets Pharaoh’s Dreams,
by Reginald Arthur, 1894

Although God addresses Yoseif in speech, he credits God with giving him the correct interpretations of four dreams: two dreams by imprisoned officials of Pharaoh and two dreams by Pharaoh himself.3 When Yoseif hears these dreams, the interpretation just occurs to him at once. (See my post Mikeitz & Vasyeishev: Yoseif’s Theology, Part 1.)

When he encounters a problem, such as the seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine that Pharaoh’s dreams foretell, the solution also occurs to him at once—but he does not attribute his solutions to God. He tells Pharoah his solution for getting Egypt through the seven years of famine: appointing “a discerning and wise man” to stockpile grain nationwide during the seven years of plenty. Pharaoh announces:

“Could we find [another] like this man, who has the spirit of an elohim in him?” (Genesis 41:38)

Elohim (אֱלֹהִים) = gods, a god, God.

Although Yoseif has been quick to say that God, not he, interprets dreams, he is silent when Pharaoh says the spirit of God is in him. Pharaoh appoints Yoseif as the administrative head of all Egypt.

In the first year of famine, Yoseif’s ten older brothers come to Egypt to buy grain. They have not seen him since he was 17, when they threw him in a pit, considered killing him, then sold him as a slave to a caravan bound for Egypt.4 The brothers do not recognize the 38-year-old Egyptian nobleman in front of them, and Yoseif converses with them through an interpreter, pretending he does not know Hebrew.

On the spot, he invents an elaborate scheme for testing whether his older brothers have reformed, and for getting his innocent younger brother, Binyamin (“Benjamin” in English), to Egypt. (See my post Mikeitz: A Fair Test, Part 1.) Yoseif sees nothing unethical in lying to and manipulating his brothers. He cares about being unethical “before God”, and so far, God has not said anything about lying.

A theory about God

Joseph’s Brothers Bow Down, by Owen Jones, 1865

In the second year of famine, Yoseif’s brothers return, with Binyamin, in order to buy more grain. And Yoseif continues to test his older brothers. (See my post Mikeitz & Vayigash: A Fair Test, Part 2.) The testing finally ends in this week’s Torah portion, when Yehudah (“Judah” in English) begs Yoseif to enslave him instead of Binyamin.5 Then Yoseif reveals his identity.

And Yoseif said to his brothers: “Come close to me, please!” And they came close. And he said: “I am Yoseif your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. And now, do not be pained, and do not let anger kindle in your eyes that you sold me here. Because to preserve life, Elohim sent me before you.” (Genesis 45:4-5)

After this startling claim, Yoseif explains his view of God’s plan.

“For this is two years the famine has been in the midst of the land, and there are still five years more in which there will be no plowing or harvest. So Elohim sent me ahead of you, to make you she-eirit and for keeping you alive, as a great deliverance. So now, you did not send me here, but Elohim! And [Elohim] has established me as av to Pharaoh and as lord of all his house and as ruler over all the land of Egypt.” (Genesis 45:6-9)

she-eirit (שְׁאֵרִית) = a remnant, remainder, residue. (In this verse, she-airit refers to a group of survivors.)

av (אָב) = father, forefather, male ancestor; chief advisor to a ruler.

Some commentators have written that Yoseif has been figuring this out for a while.6 But I think that Yoseif’s insight is the latest in a long string of sudden inspirations.

Yoseif would not be in a position to rescue his whole family from starvation if it were not for both his brothers’ evil deed, and his own sharp insights. His speech to his brothers might mean that he is now giving God credit for both their assorted levels of wickedness,7 and his own cleverness—in other words, for their respective personalities. In this interpretation, humans have free will to make their own decisions. But God determines who tends to be consumed by jealousy, and who is quick-witted.

According to 21st-century commentator Robert Alter, “Joseph’s … recognition of a providential plan may well be admirable from the viewpoint of monotheistic faith, but there is no reason to assume that Joseph has lost the sense of his own brilliant initiative in all that he has accomplished, and so when he says “God” (‘elohim, which could also suggest something more general like ‘providence’ or ‘fate’), he also means Joseph.”8

On the other hand, Yoseif’s own adolescent dreams about his brothers bowing down to him came true, even though many accidents of fate could have intervened. And his interpretations of the dreams of Pharaoh’s imprisoned officials came true, even though Pharaoh might have changed his mind about whom to pardon and whom to execute. Yoseif might be crediting God not with forming a human’s character, but with manipulating events at key moments by nudging people toward certain decisions and away from others.

According to 21st-century rabbi Jonathan Sacks, God is always nudging people: “One of the core messages of this narrative is just that—to remember that God plays a role in our lives on a daily basis even if we don’t realise it at the time. … One of the main and overarching messages is that God is behind the scenes making sure that events occur and destinations are reached according to His plan.”9

Perhaps the way you interpret Yoseif’s speech depends on your own beliefs about how much power God exercises over human beings—or how much interest God has in making things happen.

Yoseif then tells his brothers:

“Hurry and go up to my father and say to him: ‘Thus says your son Yoseif: Elohim has placed me as lord of all Egypt; come down to me, don’t remain!” (Genesis 45:9)

If God has arranged the past 22 years in order to rescue the whole extended family of his father Yaakov (“Jacob” in English), then it is time to get the patriarch down to Egypt, along with all of the wives and children of Yoseif’s eleven brothers.

Yoseif promises to provide for them all, and to settle them and their flocks and herds in Goshen, near the capital. Then he embraces Binyamin.

And he kissed all his brothers, a wept upon them. After that his brothers spoke with him. (Genesis 45:15) Why are they silent while Yoseif is explaining his theory that God arranged everything for the long-term good of the family? Maybe they are in shock at the knowledge that Yoseif’s annoying dreams came true: he rules, and they have bowed down to him. Maybe they do not believe his theory about God, but they do not dare annoy him by arguing.

Believing the theory

The famine ends in five years, but the whole family stays in Egypt. After all, Yoseif is still second only to Pharaoh, and his brothers now own land there and have lucrative administrative jobs supervising Pharoah’s flocks.10

Jacob Is Buried, by Owen Jones, 1865

The patriarch Yaakov dies after seventeen years in Egypt, and all twelve of his sons accompany his body to Canaan for burial. After they return to Egypt, Yoseif’s older brothers say to one another:

“What if Yoseif holds a grudge, and actually repays us for all the evil that we dealt out to him?” (Genesis 50:15)

They send a message, purportedly from their father, ordering Yoseif to forgive them.

Then his brothers also went, and they prostrated themselves, and said to him: “Here we are, slaves to you!” But Yoseif said to them: “Do not be afraid! For am I in place of Elohim?” (Genesis 50:18-19)

Earlier in Genesis, in the Torah portion Vayeitzei, Yaakov said the same thing to his childless wife, Rachel, several years before she finally became pregnant.

Rachel … said to Yaakov: “Give me children! If not, I will die!” Then Yaakov heated up against Rachel, and he said: “Am I in place of Elohim, who has withheld from you fruit of the belly?” (Genesis 30:1-2)

Yaakov meant that only God could “open her womb”. Now their son Yoseif is asking the same rhetorical question, saying that only God can punish his older brothers.

According to Rashi, Yoseif means: “Even if I wished to do you harm, would I at all be able to do so? For did you not all design evil against me, and you did not succeed because the Holy One, blessed be He, designed it for good. How, then, can I alone, without God’s consent, do evil to you?”10

But Hirsch wrote that even if the decision were up to Yoseif, he would not punish them: “God can judge the thoughts, the intentions. I, as a human being, see only the result, and in that respect I owe you deep gratitude.”11

Yoseif concludes by stating that his brothers’ intentions years ago really were evil; but what matters is that the result was good.

“And you, you planned evil against me; Elohim planned it for good, in order to do as it is this day—to keep many people alive.” (Genesis 50:20)

This time, Yoseif’s older brothers are comforted. They are now certain that Yoseif would never oppose God by punishing them for their long-ago crime.

Is Yoseif’s view of how God operates original? Not quite; there are intimations in earlier Genesis stories that God sometimes answers prayers by making things happen (see #9 above) and that God can promise to eventually give the descendants of the patriarchs the land of Canaan (see #8 above).

But Yoseif changes a vague feeling that God influences events into a definite statement that God controls people enough to determine either their personalities, and/or their actual deeds; and God does this to achieve concrete objectives in history.

How much power does God exercise in human affairs? To what extent do human beings have free will? These are questions that theologians and philosophers have chewed over for centuries.

Many people today believe that a powerful God (preferably omnipotent and omniscient) runs the show, but also that humans are free to make their own decisions and act on them. So, like Yoseif, they resolve the inherent contradiction by positing a God who arranges human destiny behind the scenes—loading the dice to make sure that God’s own goals are met, while granting humans a limited sphere of free will.

Are they right? If so, does God do it by determining our personalities (so we will naturally make the decisions God needs for the long-term plan), or by directing our impulses at the moment of decision?

And if not, what do you believe instead about God and about free will? 

  1. The authors of Genesis also reveal assumptions about God in the narrative, but I do not assume that the characters share these beliefs unless one of them hears or says something to that effect.
  2. Genesis 40:8, 41:16.
  3. The title “Pharaoh” in English is Paroh (פַּרֺה) in Hebrew.
  4. When Yoseif was their teenage nemesis, all ten of his older brothers cooperated in seizing and stripping him. When Reuvein objected against bloodshed, they threw him into a pit. Then Judah talked the others into selling him instead of leaving him to die there. (Genesis 37:19-27)
  5. Genesis 44:18-34. See my post Vayigash: Compassion.
  6. E.g. 19th-century rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, The Hirsch Chumash: Sefer Bereshis, translated by Danield Haberman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 2002, pp. 814-815.
  7. See footnote 4.
  8. Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2004, p. 261.
  9. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation, “The Angel Who Did Not Know He Was an Angel: Vayeshev 5780”, December 2019.
  10. Genesis 47:6, 11.
  11. Rashi (11th-century rabbi Shlomoh Yitzchaki), translation in www.sefaria.org.
  12. Hirsch, p. 897.